12 EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE. VOLUME TWO
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EXPOSITION OF
THE APOCALYPSE.
CONTENTS
Preface 5
CHAPTER IV
THE THRONE COVENANTED TO THE SON OF DAVID ESTABLISHED IN THE HOUR OF
JUDGMENT.
Translation 17
SECTION 1
THE
DOOR OPENED IN THE HEAVEN, AND THE LOUD TRUMPET VOICE
1.
The Heaven and the Door 20
2.
The First Voice as of a Trumpet 23
3.
"Ascend Hither" 26
4.
The Throne 27
5.
"Upon the Throne One sitting 33
6.
The Rainbow about the Throne 36
SECTION II
THE KINGS AND PRIESTS OF ThE
MOST HOLY
1. The Twenty four Elders 41
2. Of the number
"Twenty four 42
SECTION III
THE LIGHTNINGS AND THUNDERS
AND VOICES
1. The Lightnings 45
2. The Thunders 46
3. The Seven Lamps of Fire 47
4. When the Seven Spirits go
forth 47
5. The Translucent Sea 48
SECTION IV
THE FOUR LIVING ONES
1. Seraphim identical with
Cherubim 54
2. The Four Faces 54
CHAP'TER V
THE GLORY OF YAHWEH FILLS
THE EARTH AS THE RESULT OF THE SCROLL BEING UNROLLED AND THE SEALS LOOSED
Translation 57
14 EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE.
SECTION!
General Remarks 59
SECTION!!
I. The Scroll 67
2. The Writing Within and on
the Outside 80
3. Sealed up with the Seven
Seals 85
TABULAR ANALYSIS OF THE
APOCALYPSE 110
CHAPER
VI
THE
OPENING OF THE FIRST SIX SEALS IN THEIR ORDER
Translation 126
1Introduction 127
2.Of
the War-Horse Symbol 130
SECTION!
THE EPHESO-SMYRNEAN STATE
ACT I - SEAL-PERIOD FIRST
The
Archer goes forth conqucring
I. INITIATION
OF THE SEAL-PERIOD 132
1. The
Voice of Thunder 134
2. The
Lamb 134
3. The
Four Living Ones 137
II. THE SEAL-PERIOD OCCURRENT 139
1. The
Whiteness of the Horse 139
2. The
Rider and the Bow 141
3. The
Coronal Wreath 147
a.Epistle of Hadrian to Minutius Fundanus 152
b.Edict of Antoninus Pius to the Common
Council of Asia 153
4 Of
ClericalExpositions 15
SECTION!!
THE PERGAMIAN STATE
The Roman Horse Red with Civil
Blood
I. Preliminary Remarks 158
2. The Opening of the Seal-Period 162
3. The Horse Fiery Red 166
4. The Rider of the Horse 167
5. The Great Dagger 168
6. The Earth 169
7. Fulfilment of the ProphecPreliminary Remarks 158
2. The Opening of the Seal-Period 162
3. The Horse Fiery Red 166
4. The Rider of the Horse 167
5. The Great Dagger 168
6. The Earth 169
7. Fulfilment y 170
SECTION!!!
THE THYATIRAN STATE
ACT III - SEAL-PERIOD THIRD
The Greco-Latin Horse Black
with Woe
1. The Spirit not yet withdrawn 181
2. The Black Horse 182
3. The Balance-ll('!der 183
EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE. 15
4. The voice 183
5. The Choinix 186
t,. Fulfilment of the
Prophecy 190
SECTION IV
THE
SARD IAN STATE ACT IV - SEAL-PERIOD FOURTH
The
Roman Horse Pale with Death and Corruption
I.
The Rider "Death" 200
2.
HoHades 201
3.
"The Fourth of the Earth" 205
4.
Fulfilment of the Prophecy 208
a. Death and Hades kill with the sword 208
b. Death and Hades kill with the Wild Beasts of the Earth 214
C. Death and Hades kill with Famine and Pestilence 221
SECTION V
THE PHILADELPHIAN STATE
ACT
V - SEAL-PERIOD FIFTH The "Ten Days Tribulation"
I. Why the Four Living Ones do not appear 224
2. The Altar 234
3. "Until When? 239
4. White Robes 242
5. Souls 246
6. "0 Despot, holy and true 255
7. Their Fellow-servants and Brethren 259
8. Historical Illustration of the Fifth
Seal 264
SECTION V!
THE LAODICEAN STATE
ACT
VI - SEAL-PERIOD SIXTH
The
taking of the Power which hindered the
revelation of the Man of Sin Out of the way.
1.
Preliminaty Remarks 277
2.
Earthquakes of the Apocalypse 282
3.
The Sun and Moon of the Heaven 284
4.
Concluding Remarks 292
CHAPTER
V THE SEALING AND THE SEALED
CHAPTER
VIII
THE
SEVENTH SEAL OPENED AND THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS
Translation 356
I. Silence in the Heaven 357
2. "Half
an Hour 359
3. Historical
Testimony 362
4. The
Apocalyptic Temple 362
INDUCTION
OF THE JUDGMENTS OF THE SEVENTH SEAL
1. "And there were Voices 377
2. "And there were Thunders 384
3. "And there were Lightnings 386
4. "And there was an Earthquake 389
Chapters four and five
provide an introduction to the balance of The Apocalypse. John's attention was
first directed to a symbolic description of the Kingdom in its glory ~ and this
was followed by the visions of the seven seals, seven trumpets, seven vials and
so forth, that depict events leading to this consummation. It may appear
strange that the final picture should be given first, but that is the Spirit's
method (e.g. Ch. 11:15,18) as adopted throughout Scripture. Yahweh would have
us centre our attention on the hope set before us, and by that means place all
the events leading up to it in proper perspective (cp. 2 Corinthians 14:15-18).
- HPM.
page 17
EXPOSITION
OF THE APOCALYPSE
Chapter 4
The chapters of this volume are numbered according to the numbers of the
chapters of the Apocalypse; so that the fourth chapter of this work is an
exposition of the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse, and so on to the eleventh
inclusive.
SUBJECT.
TRANSLATION
APOC. IV.
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,
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 RAINIBOW
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 coronal wreaths. 5. And out of the throne burst forth
lightnings and thunders and voices: and SEVEN LAMPS OF FIRE burning before the
throne, which are the SEVEN SPIRI'TS 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 honour, and thanks, to the ONE sitting upon the throne,
who liveth for the Aions of the Aions, the
18 EXPOSITION
OF THE APOCALYPSE.
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 coronals before the throne, saying, 11. "Worthy
art thou, 0 Lord, to receive the glory and the honour and the power; thou
createdst all things, and on account of thy will they exist, and were
created."
SECTION 1.A
DOOR OPENED IN THE HEAVEN, AND THE LOUD TRUMPET VOICE
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, saying, "Ascend
hither, and I will exhibit to thee things which must come to pass after
these." - Verse 1.
In
the English version, the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse begins with the words
"after this;" as if the Spirit referred to one particular thing noted
in the previous chapter, after which the subject of the fourth was to be
initiated. But the original phrase is meta
tauta, and should be rendered "after these things;" the Spirit
thereby intimating a plurality of things to be accomplished before the establishment
of the throne.
The
things to be perfected before the setting up of the kingdom were those styled
in ch. 1:19, "the things which are." This sentence must be
interpreted of the things existing while John was in Patmos. There are three
sets of things indicated in ch. 1:9: first,
"the things thou hast seen;" second,
"the things which are;" and, third,
"the things which shall come to pass, meta tauta, after these." The first set consisted of the Seven
Lightstands, the Son of Man, and the Seven Stars; the second, of the things
treated of in the epistles to the Seven Ecclesias in relation to their
spiritual condition, which was developing itself into irremediable apostacy and
delusion; and the third, of the things to be accomplished after the removal of
the lightstands out of their place in the ecclesias - ch. 2:5; after the tribulation of the ten days - cli. 2:10; after
fighting against the Balaamites with the sword of the Spirit's mouth; after the casting of
Jezebel into a bed, and them
EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE. 19
who
commit adultery with her into great tribulation, and the killing of her
children with death - ch. 2:22; after his coming upon the dead in trespasses
and sins as a thief - ch 3~1, 3. and after the Spirit had spued them out of his
mouth ch 3: 16 These things were all to
come to pass before the promises affixed to each epistle could be fulfilled
which promises in their development in the Hour of Judgment ch 15:7 - are symbolized in ch 4:2-.II
But
as to the time that was to elapse trom the epoch of John 's abode in Patmos to the opening of
a door in the heavens, or from the spuing of the sevenfold ecclesia in
Laodicean manifestation out of the Spirit's mouth, to the establishment of the
throne in the opened heavens, it is not stated in this chapter how long. As I
have shown, the ecclesia (a remnant only excepted), transformed into "the
Holy Catholic Church," had been spued out in the Constantine Era; still
"the Church" continued. Jezebel and Balaam still flourish in the
heavenlies, or high places of the earth; where they revel iii all the pleasures
of sin, and in the enjoyment of all the rewards of unrighteousness, the Gentile
Balac, the son of Bosor, or the world-rulers of "the state" can
bestow. As we have shown, Jezebel is representative of what Papists and
Protestants agree to call "the Church," which maintains its
ascendancy until the opening of a door "in the heavens;" and Balaam
is representative of the Clerical Orders of "the church" which will
also prevail as "the spirituals of the wickedness in the heavenlies"
(Eph. 6:12), until the throne is set. This is the order of things pertaining to
the course intermediate between Constantine, A.D. 312-337, and the apocalypse
of the Sons of the Deity, which is near at hand. In all this long period of
over sixteen hundred and twenty years, LAODICEANISM has prevailed in the form
of the Beast of the Sea, the Beast of the Earth, the Image of the Beast, the
False Prophet, and the Scarlet-colored Beast bearing Jezebel, the Mother of
Harlots, and of All the Abominations of the earth. The root of all these things
is that Mystery of Iniquity at work in the christian community in Paul's day -2
Thess. 2:7. It was then only being sown by those wolves in sheep's clothing he
predicted would arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after
them. In this they succeeded marvelously; so that the true believers were
reduced to a mere remnant, which at the present time is too inconsiderable to
command the respectful attention of "the church".
But
this Jezebel and Balaamite Mystery of Iniquity which continues to the adventual
epoch, is to be consumed by the Spirit of the Lord's mouth, and utterly
destroyed by the manifestation of his presence. Such is the testimony of Paul
and Daniel, to say nothing of
Page 20 EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE.
the
rest. Now, this consuming and destroying manifestation of spirit is what John
saw when he "looked and beheld a door opened in the heaven" of the
apocalypse. What he saw is the epiphany, or
manifestation of the Spirit's parousia, or
presence. He beheld it in belligerent operation; for "out of the
throne," he says, "proceed lightnings and thunders and voices,"
which are the symbols of war.
1. The
Heaven and the Door
I
need not here repeat what has already been said about "the heaven."
It will be sufficient to refer the reader to the captions on pages 139 and 146
of vol.1. To the saints this aerial expanse is closed. At present they do not
shine there as the sun, moon, constellations, and stars of the firmament. The
luminaries of the heaven are the dignities, or glories, incarnated in the
officials who figure as the civil and spiritual rulers of "the earth and
habitable." Although the saints are promised "power over the nations
to rule them" (ch. 2:26,27), "the heaven," in which national
government is located is shut and fast closed against them. Their principles
incapacitate them for sharing power with the world-rulers in Church and State.
A saint, who is one in deed as well as name, cannot condescend to subject
himself to the conditions necessary to obtain the favor of the political mob,
whether that mob be a mob of aristocrats, or a mob of what these call "the
swinish multitude" he cannot, I say, condescend, as a son of the Deity, a
brother of Jesus Christ, and a king and priest elect for God, to seek the favor
of "the dead in trespasses and sins" whose votes and patronage are
indispensable to his exaltation to the heaven; in which he may figure by the
eloquence of his speech, or the gaudy decorations of a court, as a star of the
first or an inferior magnitude. No saint could by any other possibility than
that based upon apostacy, consent to occupy the Papal Chair, or to fill an
archiepiscopal, or other ecclesiastical or secular throne. The heaven, in which
these seats of glory, honor, wealth, and power exist, is infected with such
malarious and poisonous exhalations of sin's flesh, that he could not breathe
them, and live and move, and have continued healthful spiritual existence in
the Deity. Fortunately for the saints this heaven is shut against them, and its
door bolted, locked, and barred to keep out all who will not fall down and
worship the Satan, who is prince of the Aerial, and bestows its glories upon
whomsoever he approves.
But
this heaven is not always to be shut up and barred against the saints - against
the Lord Jesus and his Brethren. The Satan that now
EXPOSITION OF THE
APOCALYPSE. 21
fills
it, and monopolizes its heavenly things, is to be hurled from it with a mighty
overthrow. This Satan, which is Sin in official manifestation, holds the power
and glory of the world's dominions. They are delivered unto him, and to
whomsoever he will, he gives them Luke 4:5,6. All the evil that afflicts
humanity is "the power of the enemy," or the Satan, whether that evil
be enthroned in the heaven, or be found in the poison of serpents and
scorpions. But the Satan in the heavenlies is doomed; for Jesus in vision of
the future, said: "I beheld the Satan as it were lightning fall out of the
heaven." - Luke 10:18. He falls thence by virtue of a stronger than the
Satan breaking into the heaven and casting him out. The Satan's house or
kingdom is strongly fortified against all burglars and besiegers, at present
upon the earth. Under existing circumstances, there is no chance of the saints
being able to make a breach, or to open a door in the heaven, to effect an
entrance into it, and after the example of Cromwell and his Ironsides, to expel
the Satan, and eject him with all his instruments of mischief and abomination.
But though this present inability exists, the expulsion is to be accomplished.
The oracle before us proclaims "a door
opened in the heaven," which is equivalent to saying, that a power had
been apocalypsed on earth, stronger than the Satan; that this power had made a
breach in the enemy's works; and that this breach had become practicable, so
that the breaching power could march through it as through a door, and take
possession of the heaven, or "kingdom under the whole heaven." - Dan.
7:27.
The
oracle does not say that doors were
opened. Our attention is restricted to a door,
that is, to one door. A door is that opening in a wall through which you
pass into the area or room beyond. This is the scriptural use of the word.
Understanding this, and that the apocalyptic heaven is that constitution of
things expanded over all peoples, and nations, and languages, as the government
by which they are regulated and controlled; the reader will perceive, that the coup-d'etat by which the smiting power
succeeds in placing itself in power and authority over any part of those
nations or peoples, is a door of entrance to that new Power into the heaven.
That coup-d'etat, which gave Louis
Napoleon introduction into the heaven, and placed him there enthroned among
"the Powers," was "a door opened in the heaven" for him to
pass through. This is easily comprehended, and makes the oracle before us easy
of comprehension, as we shall endeavour to show.
From
the condensed view I have given of "the Mystery of the Deity as he hath revealed
the glad tidings to his servants the prophets, under the caption of "the Apocalypse Rooted in the
Prophets," page 41,vol.1, the reader will have learned that the Deity
proposes to enact a
Page
22
great
and mighty coup-d'etat, or stroke of policy,
upon the world's government. He intends so to shape and overrule its ambitions
and schemes, as to cause them to make the territory of His kingdom the seat of
war between hostile confederacies, contending for dominion over the hundred and
twenty seven provinces of Daniel's lion, bear, and leopard. '”I will gather," saith He, all the
nations against Jerusalem to war; and I will bring them down into the Valley of
Jehoshaphat." "They shall pitch the tents of their entrenched camp
between the seas to the mountain of the glory of holiness"; a region which
in Apoc. 16:16, is indicated by the Hebrew word "Armageddon". This concentration of the hosts of the
nations in the Holy Land, is its invasion by Gog, the Prince of Rosh, in
hostility to the Merchant Power of Tarshish and its allies, then in possession
of Jerusalem. But 'this city shall be taken"; 'and the land of Egypt shall
not escape." Advanced to this sovereignty, the Gog-dominion stands forth
as "the Dragon, the Old Serpent, surnamed the Diabolos and the Satan"
-Apoc. 20:2; and as the Image of the kingdom of men in its latter day
manifestation, as represented to Nebuchadnezzar in his dream. In the
development of these events a crisis is formed, such as the world, for
magnitude and importance, has never seen before. The Satan will then have
attained to the loftiest pinnacle of the temple, with the presumption that
universal sovereignty is within the grasp of his omnipotence. The heaven will
be filled with his glory; and no son of sin's flesh will find admission there,
whose zeal runs not in the way of a ready and devout allegiance to the
God-defying principles of "the spirit that works in the children of
disobedience."
But
things having arrived at this crisis, under the leadership of the Lawless One,
the time will have also arrived for opening a door into Satan's heaven, through
which the saints may enter in. This will be done by a divine coup-d'etat such as the Satan little
expects. This political stroke consists in the
power represented by a Stone falling
upon the enemy, and crushing them with a terrible overthrow. This STONE-POWER
is the power of the Eternal Spirit in Jesus and the saints; who with sword,
pestilence, rain, hail, fire and brimstone, plead with the adversary, and
destroy him from the Promised Land. In this way Yahweh makes Jerusalem "a
cup of trembling, unto all the people round about when they shall be in the
siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem: also a burdensome stone for all
people, all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all
the people of the earth be gathered together against it." Their multitudes
and power will not appal him. He will go forth and fight against them, and
stand victorious upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem
Page
23
on
the east. In this way, He, who the prophet styles, Yahweh my ELOHIM comes in, all
the saints with him. In proof of all
this, the reader is referred to Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, and Zechariah.
Thus
YAHWEH Elohim, the saints, "come in." By the crashing power
of the Stone a door is opened, and they march in. Their Prince, who came as a
thief, obtains possession of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and becomes a
potentate among the thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers of the
heaven, in which, until He breaks in upon them, "the Devil and his
Angels" only can be found.
2. The First Voice as of a Trumpet
A
door being opened in the heaven when John was looking, a voice issued forth
from the opening, and addressed him. He tells us that the voice was identical
with "that first voice which he heard as of a trumpet speaking with
him." This first voice is noted in ch. 1:10. It was a loud trumpet-like
voice, and he heard it when "in spirit." In all this, John was a
dramatic person; or, one through whom was represented in action certain things
not narrated. When in Patmos, and about to behold something pertaining to
"the Day of the Lord," he says he was in spirit." This is
equivalent to saying that, when he shall behold the reality of the similitude he saw in spirit, he will also be
"in spirit"; which likewise intimates by implication, that he will
have previously risen from among the dead and be spirit. The first voice, then,
he heard behind him as the loud sound of a trumpet, was a symbolical voice of
the seventh trumpet period, which will awake him from his death-sleep; for it
is under the seventh, which is also the last, that the dead are raised, the
prophets and saints are rewarded, the day of the Lord is introduced, and the
Satan ejected from the heaven, bound hand and foot, and shut down in the
bottomless profound there to remain for the thousand years ensuing - ch. 11:18.
Now,
in John having referred us in ch. 4:1, to the first voice of ch. 1:10, it was
equivalent to telling us, that the first and second hearing of the same voice
related to the same epoch, or point of time. They both relate to the seventh
trumpet period; and as John "turned to see" in the first instance,
and "looked" and ascended in the other, the vision of the Son of Man,
and the vision of the thrones, the elders, and the living ones, are both
representative of things destined to come to pass after the advent of Christ
and the resurrection of the saints. The apocalyptic Son of Man is the
Stone-Power in manifestation. He shatters Nebuchadnezzar's image to pieces; and
having opened the heaven, establishes therein a throne, which becomes the
centre of a
Page
24
dominion
extending over all the earth. The first time John heard the voice of this
trumpet, it was "loud." It awoke him from the dust of death. But the
second time, he does not say it was loud; this may be inferred, because it was
the same voice. He was "looking," before the words of the voice
addressed him. He had risen, and was contemplating the opening of a door in the
heaven; and while so looking, there was a speaking from the opening inviting
him into the heaven. Hence, the beginning of the first voice awoke him to life
and action; and afterwards the same voice invited him to ascend to the heaven
and to inherit the kingdom established there.
The
trumpet to which this "loud," "first voice" belongs, is
that represented in "the memorial of the blowing of trumpets," on the
first day of the seventh month - Lev. 23:24. It is that sounding by which the
princes, heads of the thousands of Israel, are summoned to gather themselves
together unto Christ, the King of Israel - Num. 10:4. It precedes the sounding
on the tenth of the seventh month, which proclaims liberty throughout the land
unto all the inhabitants thereof
- Lev. 25:9. The saints are first raised and exalted to the heaven; in
other words, "meet the Lord in the
air," as symbolized in this fourth chapter; and then afterward
"the Great Trumpet" of the Jubilee is blown by YAHWEH Elohim, who in the "lightnings and
thunders which proceed out of the throne" (v.5), goes forth with the
whirlwind of the south - Zech. 9:14.
The
silver trumpet that sounds upon the first day of the seventh month, gathers
together that "great multitude which no man can number of all nations, and
kindreds, and peoples, and tongues"; of which John says he beheld that "they stood before the Throne, and
before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands"
-chap. 7:9. "These had been dead, but when the trumpet sounded at the time
of the dead that they should be judged, and that Yahweh Elohim should give
reward to his Servants the prophets and to the saints, and to them that
venerate his name, small and great" (ch. 11:18), when the loud
trumpet-voice was heard at this time in the lower parts of the earth, all
these, with John among the number, "turned" and "looked" -
awake from their dusty bed, come forth from their graves, and gather together
unto him (2 Thess. 2:1) who, by the energy of the Eternal Spirit, will have
raised them from among the dead. This "first voice" which brings them
together to stand before the throne in the heaven, plants them as the
symbolical 144,000, upon MOUNT ZION, the area of the throne and Most Holy Place
of the heaven; it plants them there with the Lamb, in preparation to "follow
him whithersoever he goeth" - ch. 14:1,4. In preparation to go forth, not
in actual progress. Another "loud voice"
Page
25
must
be heard before they go forth in the lightnings and thunders of the war of
"the great day of God the Almighty" - ch. 14:15;16:14.
While
prepared for war, but the lightnings and thunders not yet flashed forth from
the throne (ch. 4:5), the trumpet of the Jubilee is sounded for the gathering
together of the congregation of Israel from the four corners of the earth. The
sound of this trumpet is not an alarm for war - Num. 10:7. It is the "loud
voice" of the class-angel that flies in mid-heaven, making proclamation of
the good news pertaining to the Millennial Aion; announcing that the time of
its introduction has arrived, and inviting mankind of all nations and tongues,
to fear the Deity and give glory to him, because the hour of his judgment is
come -ch. 14:7. "The Great Trumpet," says Isaiah, "shall be
blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria,
and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship Yahweh in the Holy
Mount at Jerusalem" - ch. 27:13. This testimony informs us that the
blowing of the great jubilee trumpet on the tenth of the seventh month, will
ultimate in the return of Israel to their fatherland; but this return will not
result without war. The North will not give up, and the South will keep back,
until both North and South are harvested, and gathered into the winepress of
the wrath of God ch. 14:15,20. Assyria,
or the North, and Egypt, or the South, will be the enemy oppressing them in
their land. This being their condition, the ordinance appointed for their
generations during the Mosaic Olahm, enjoined upon the priests to blow the two
silver trumpets, with the assurance that the blasts thereof should cause them
to be remembered before Yahweh their Elohim, and that consequently they should
be saved from their enemies - Num. 10:9. This was a prophetic memorial, the
body or substance of which is of the Christ - Col. 2:16,17. It signifies, that
in "the latter end," when oppressed by the enemy, "the Devil and
Satan," the loud angel-voices sentforth
out of the throne (ch. 4:5), should proclaim war; and command the Son of
Man in his white clouds of warriors, to thrust in the sharp sickle, and reap
down their oppressors, and so save them from their enemies.
The
"first voice," then, is the apocalyptic antitype of the Mosaic
ordinance of the memorial of the blowing of the two silver trumpets, which were
blown for the calling of the assembly, a holy convocation; and for the
journeying of the camps. This "first voice" is heard by the class of
which John is the apocalyptic representative, before the pouring Out of the
Seventh Vial "INTO ThE AIR;" by which a breach is made, through
which, as "a door," the saints, who are raised under the Sixth Vial -
"the kings which are from the Sun's risings" - who hear the first
voice as of a trumpet speaking to them, enter into the heaven. Raised
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26
under
the Sixth Vial, which has been pouring out upon the symbolical Euphrates for
the last forty years of the present century, they await further developments.
They await the smiting of the Nebuchadnezzar Image upon the feet, which is to
manifest the temple of the Deity in the open heaven; and in the midst of that
temple of holy ones, the Messianic Ark of his Covenant, whose propitiatory or
mercy seat, is the crucified Nazarene - ch. 11:19.
3.
"Ascend Hither."
"Ascend hither, and I
will exhibit to thee things which must come to pass after these." - Ch.
4..J.
After
resurrection is ascension; but not necessarily instantaneously after. This is
evident from the example given in the case of the Lord Jesus. He first came out
of the sepulchre; and then, after a certain interval, "ascended to the
Father;" an ascent which is not to be confounded with his assumption from the Mount of Olives,
forty-three days after his crucifixion - John 20:17; Acts 1:11. He ascended to
the Father before he was "taken up." The ascent was a necessary
preparation for the taking up of the resurrected body; for a body such as he
had, when he forbid Mary to touch him, was unfit for translation through the
higher regions of our atmosphere, and the airless ethereal beyond. It was
necessary that he should be "in spirit" and so become spirit, that he
might be with the Father. So John "looked" and "heard,"
which are vital actions; but though living and looking he saw nothing until
after the invitation to ascend, with the promise, that subsequently to the
ascent he should see an exhibition of things which should come to pass when
"the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom" (Dan. 7:22);
which implies their resurrection and ascent after the similitude of the
dramatic resurrection and ascension of John.
The
invitation to John to ascend into the heaven was equivalent to inviting him to
"meet the Lord in the air;" and by implication, an invitation to all
whom he represented to do so likewise at the appointed time. This is the only
place in the apocalypse where it is said to John anaba bode, ascend Hither! In ch. 17:1, and 21:9, it is said deuro, conic here, or "come
hither;" and in doing so, he is "in spirit borne away into a
wilderness;" and "upon a great and high mountain." In the
wilderness he sees the Mother of Harlots, and the ensanguined Sin-Powers by
which she is sustained; and from upon the mountain that overtops all other
mountains, he beholds "the House of the Elohim of Jacob" (Isa. 2:3),
or, the New Jerusalem Community, in the light of which the
EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE 27
nations
of the Millennial Aion walk in peace and goodwill. But when "a door in the
heaven is opened," John is not borne, or carried away; he is called up. He
is invited to "ascend" - to ascend to the kingdom and throne to be
established in the heaven. There is a testimony analogous to this in ch. 11:12,
where a class of persons not represented by John are addressed in the words, anabete hode, ascend ye hither! And it
says "they ascended into the heaven in the cloud which ascended."
This cloud of witnesses was the political element of the "Two Witnesses," which had been politically dead, but
unburied, for 105 years, at the end of which, that is, in the 1789-'90, they
rose again, and ascending to the heaven in the sight of their terrified
enemies, became the ruling power in the state. Hence for John to ascend into
the heaven dramatically was indicative of those he represents, who have been
prevailed against by the Sin-Powers of the Habitable, trodden under foot for
the previous forty-two months of years, and sleeping in the dust, ascending
from these depths of humiliation and degradation, to the high and exalted
position of kings and priests for the Deity, through whom the world shall be
ruled for a thousand years.
The
Throne
"I was in spirit: and
behold A THRONE was established in the heaven. "-4:2
The
word throne is from the Greek thronos, an elevated seat with a footstool; and
derived from thrao, to sit, metonymically,
it signifies imperial and regal power. In the text before us it stands for
"the dominion, glory, and kingdom," which Daniel says "was given
to the Son of Man, that all peoples, and nations, and languages might serve
him"-ch. 7:14.
As
soon as the invitation was given to ascend to the heaven, John was "in spiriL" Immediately upon
this he saw a throne in the heaven, which had not been there before in such
glorious manifestation. It had many ages anterior to his time, occupied a place
in the heaven contemporarily with the thrones of Tyre, and Egypt, and Sheba,
and Babylon; but, while he was in Patmos, and for many ages before and since,
even to this day, there is no such throne in the heaven. When it existed there
of old, it was occupied by David and Solomon as the kings of Yahweh over
Israel. It was then styled "the throne of Yahweh," and the throne of
the kingdom of Yahweh over Israel" - I Chron. 28:5; 29::23.~By the
covenant of the Olahm, or Hidden Period, this throne was established in the
family of David. The proof of this is found in
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28
numerous
places of the Scripture. Thus in 2 Sam. 7:12-16, the covenant to David reads,
'YAHWEH will make for thee a house. When thy days shall be completed, and thou
hast slept with thy fathers, I will cause to raise up after thee thy seed who
shall proceed out of thy bowels; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall
build a house for my name; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom ad-olahm, during the hidden
period;" that is, the Millennium. 'I will be to him for a father, and he
shall be to me for a son; whom, in his being caused to bow down, I will chasten
with a sceptre of men, and with stripes from the sons of Adam; but my mercy I
will not take from him as that I put away from with Saul, whom I removed from
before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established during the
Olahm before thy face; thy throne shall be set up for the Olahm," or the
thousand years.
Now
when David's days were about completed, he thus expressed himself in reference
to this covenant of the throne and kingdom. In 2 Sam. 23:1, it is written:
"Now these words of David, the last, are an oracle of David, son of Jesse;
even an oracle of the mighty man enthroned, concerning an Anointed One of the
Elohim of Jacob; and the pleasant theme of Israel's songs.
"Yahweh's
spirit spake by me, and His word was upon my tongue; Elohim of Israel spake to
me, and the Rock of Israel discoursed, saying, There shall be a Ruler over
mankind, ruling in the righteous precepts of Elohim. And as brightness of
morning, He shall rise the Sun of an unclouded dawn, shining forth after rain
upon tender grass out of the earth.
"Though
my house is not so with AlL, yet He hath appointed for me THE COVENANT OF THE
OLAHM, ordered in everything and sure: truly this is all my salvation, and all my delight, though he cause it
not to spring forth.
"But
the wicked shall be all of them as a thorn-bush to be thrust away; yet without
hand shall they be taken; nevertheless A MAN shall smite upon them. He shall be
filled with iron and the shaft of a spear; but with fire to burn up while
standing, they shall be consumed."
The
above testimonies I have translated from the Hebrew. The reader can compare
them with the English version, and adopt which he thinks the more intelligible
and correct. He will find that both renderings agree in affirming this:
1.
That a dynastic house was guaranteed
to David;
2.
That the kingdom and throne of this dynasty should be established during a
future period;
3.
That the commencement and duration of that period were hidden from David;\
Page 29
4. That said kingdom and throne should be
established by AlL; or, as Daniel says, by "the Eloah of the heavens;"
5. That the occupant of said throne should
be a resurrected seed of David and Son of the Deity;
6. That this seed should come to his death
by the violence of his enemies; and be pierced with a spear:
7. That the establishment of said kingdom
and throne should come to pass after David's sleep with his fathers, and before
his face; so that the establishment of the throne and kingdom would be after
David's resurrection from among the dead;
8. That this Covenant of the then, and
yet, Hidden Period, ordered in all things and sure, contained all that
constituted the salvation looked for by David; and in which was his delight;
9. That He who should be at once seed of
David and Son of the Deity should be Ruler over mankind, ruling them in
righteousness and in glory, when occupying the covenanted throne; and,
10. That he should utterly destroy the power
of the wicked.
When
these things were revealed to David, concerning his royal descendant and his kingdom
and throne, they became the anchor of his soul both sure and steadfast behind
the veil of a future undefined. Now, David was a great poet; we may say, the
greatest poet that ever lived; for the Songs of Israel were from his pen
indited under the inspiration of Yahweh's spirit which spake by him, putting
divine words upon his tongue. The covenanted seed, and the glorious things to
him belonging, were "the pleasant theme of Israel's songs." In these
songs, that which was "all his salvation and all his delight" was
always prominent; and made them, not merely David's, but Yahweh's songs, which
"Israelites indeed," found difficult to sing when captives in a
strange and foreign land Psalm 137:4. In the eighty-ninth of these songs, the
Rock of Israel discoursed concerning the covenant, saying, "A hidden
period of mercy shall be builded; thy faithfulness in them, the heavens, thou
wilt establish. I have devised a covenant for my chosen one; I have sworn to
David my servant, saying, during a hidden period I will establish thy seed; and
I will build thy throne for a generation of the race." And in verse 24,
"In my name shall his horn be exalted. And I will set his hand in the sea;
and his right hand in the rivers. He shall call upon me, saying, Thou art my
Father, my AlL, and the Rock of my Salvation. Yea, I will appoint him the
Firstborn, the Most High to the kings of the earth. For the hidden period I
will keep my mercy for him; and my covenant shall be steadfast for him. And I
have appointed his seed la-ad, for eternity
(see diagram on p.131, Vol.1) and his
throne as the days of the heavens." Once have I sworn by my holiness,
verily I will not lie to David: his seed shall be for the hidden period; and
his throne as the sun
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30
before
me. As the moon it shall be established a hidden period; and as a witness
steadfast in the firmament" - ver. 35. "As the sun" the throne
will always be; but "as the moon," as a priestly throne, it shall
continue only for the thousand years, until sin and death shall be destroyed.
Now,
when we look into the heaven we behold no such throne and kingdom as those
covenanted to David among the powers. We see there the Papal throne, the
thrones of the Romish kingdoms, the imperial thrones of the Austrian, and
Russian, and Turkish dominions, and so forth; but no kingdom and throne of
David over Israel in the promised land. Is this present condition of the heaven
permanent and final? Are these thrones and governments of the eastern and
western hemispheres, always to rule the nations, and is there never to exist a
throne and kingdom of David occupied and governed by his immortal household, as
the kings and priests of the Deity? Whoever affirms these things, in so saying
avers that Yahweh's spirit has "lied to David." He charges the Deity
with falsehood; and in so doing proves, that he himself is like his father the
devil, "a liar, and that the truth is not in him." But no. The
existing order of the heaven is not final. The things which are seen there are
only temporary: ta blepomena proskaira -
2 Cor. 4:18. These thrones are to be cast down when the Ancient of Days shall
sit; and judgment shall be executed by the saints - Dan. 7:9,22. When "his
throne as a fiery flame" shall be manifested it will be established in the
heaven, and not withhold its "lightnings, and thunders, and voices,"
till every one of them shall be in the possession of the seed covenanted to
David.
But
the absence of the throne and kingdom of David from the heaven for a long
series of ages anterior to his resurrection was contemplated and expressly
declared by the spirit in David and the prophets. In view of their suppression
the spirit says in the psalm quoted, "But thou hast cast off and rejected;
thou hast been very wroth with thine anointed one. Thou hast made void the covenant
of thy servant; thou hast profaned his crown to the earth; thou hast broken
down all his defences; thou hast reduced his strongholds to ruins. All who pass
by the way spoil him; he hath been a reproach to his neighbors. Thou hast
exalted the right hand of his adversaries; all his enemies thou hast made glad:
yea, thou wilt turn the edge of his sword, and make him not to stand in war;
thou hast made his brightness to cease, and his throne thou hast cast down to
the earth. The days of his youth hast thou shortened; thou hast covered him
over with shame. How long, 0 Yahweh? Wilt thou hide thyself la-netzach, perpetually?"
Such
was the condition of things in relation to the throne in John's day as in our
own. David, John, and all the saints from their time to ours,
Page 31.
are
all interested in the inquiry "How long?" Until when shall the
kingdom and throne of David and David's Lord, be prostrate in the dust, and
exist only as a matter of hope? This question has been long since answered by
Ezekiel, who in ch. 21:27, says, the throne shall not exist "until He come
whose right it is," and Yahweh Elohim will give it him. Jesus being the
Christ, is He whose right it is. This is evident from Gabriel's word in Luke
1:3, saying to Mary, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great,
and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and Yahweh Elohim shall give unto
him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob eis tous ajonas, during the Ajons, and
of his kingdom there shall not be an end. The right to the throne, then,
belongs to Jesus. But when he came into the world it was not in existence, nor
while he remained here; and when he departed from the earth, instead of
possessing a throne, "he went into a far country to receive for himself a
kingdom;" and having received it "to return," -Luke 19:12. He
has not yet returned, which is a proof that he has not "received for
himself a kingdom." But he will certainly receive it according to Daniel's
vision of the night - ch. 7:13,14; and when he returns in power and glory, and
all the holy angels with him, then will he build again the tabernacle of David
which is fallen down; and build again the ruins thereof, and set it up as in
the days of old; and occupy the throne, which will then be the throne of his
glory-Matt. 25:31; Amos 9:11; Acts 15:16.
And this is that throne which John beheld "established in the
heaven."
But
it may be asked, in what terrestrial locality will this throne in the heaven be
established? What is the topography of the substance, or reality, of the vision
John beheld "in spirit?" The answer is MOUNT ZION IN JERUSALEM. This
is where the Davidian covenant locates it, in saying to David, "THY
kingdom shall be established during the Olahm before thy face; THY throne shall
be set up for the Olahm," or hidden period of a thousand years duration.
When these words were spoken to David he was reigning in Mount Zion in
Jerusalem in the presence of ancients, the princes of Israel. Deeply impressed
with this truth, as the poet of the House of Jacob, he celebrated the glory of
Zion when he should behold her full of palaces tenanted by tile saints, the
Elohim of Israel. Hence, the psalms, are not only styled "Yahweh's
Songs," and "Israel's Songs," but "the Songs of Zion."
The following is a specimen of the teaching of the spirit concerning Zion and
Jerusalem.
"Yahweh's
foundation is in the mountains of holiness. He loveth the gates of Zion more
than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, 0
city of the ELOHIM. Selah. This Man (the foundation-stone laid in Zion) was
developed there: even to Zion it shall
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32
be
said, the man, even THE MAN, was brought forth in her; and He tfle Most High,
will establish her. In enrolling the peoples Yahweh will reckon (that) this Man
was born there. Also singers as well as musicians (Apoc. 5:8,9; 14:2; 15:2,3) there: all my springs are in thee - Psa. 87.
Again.
In Psalm 48 it is written, "Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised in
the city of our Elohim, the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful of situation,
the joy of all the earth, is the mountain of Zion, the sides of the north, the
citadel of the Great King. Elohim in her palaces has been known for a defense.
For behold, the kings (under Gog) were assembled, they perished together. They
beheld; so were they in consternation; they were terrified, in terror they
hasted away. Trembling seized upon them there, and anguish as a parturient
woman. With a wind of the east thou wilt wreck the ships of Tarshish. As we
have heard so have we seen in the city of YARWEH Tz'vaoth, in the city of our
ELOHIM. Elohim will establish her ad-olahm,
during the hidden period," or MILLENNIUM.
Again.
In Psa. 50 "AlL, Elohim, YAHWER spoke and made
proclamation to the earth from the rising of the sun unto its going down. Out
of Zion the perfection of beauty Elohim shined forth. Our Elohim shall come,
and not keep silence. A fire before him shall devour, and it shall be very
tempestuous around him. He will make proclamation to the heavens from above,
and to the earth for to vindicate his people: saying, Gather ye to me my
saints, the separatists of my covenant by the sacrifice. And the heavens shall
declare his righteousness; for He, the Elohim, is judge. Selah."
In
Psa. 46:4, also it says: "There is a river whose channels shall gladden
the city of Elohim, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Elohim
in her midst, therefore she shall not be moved. Elohim shall help her at the
opening of the dawn. The nations were enraged; the kingdoms were moved. He
uttered his voice and the earth shall melt. Yahweh Tz'vaoth is with us; a
fortress for us the Elohim of Jacob. Selah."
In
Psa. 122 it is written, "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, 0
Jerusalem - Jerusalem! that is builded as a city compactly joined together.
Whither have gone up the tribes, the tribes of Yah, a testimony for Israel, to
give thanks to the name of Yahweh; because there they have established thrones
for judgment, the thrones of the House of
David. Seek ye the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper who love
thee."
Lastly,
in Psa. 132:11, it is written, "Yahweh swore to David the truth; he will
not turn from it, saying; Of the fruit of thy body I will set upon the throne
for thee. If thy sons will keep my covenant and my
Page 33
testimony
which I will teach them; their sons also shall sit in the throne for thee adai-ad, until the beyond" (see diagram on p.131, vol. 1)(note
scanner could not copy). For Yahweh has chosen to be in Zion; he has desired it
for a dwelling for himself. This is my rest until the beyond. Here I will
dwell, for I have desired it. Blessing I will bless her provision; her poor I
will satisfy with bread. Also her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her
saints shall shout aloud for joy. There I will cause a HORN to bud for David; I
have prepared a LAMP for mine anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame;
but upon him shall his crown florish."
Such,
then, is merely a specimen of what is testified in "the songs of
Zion" of the relation she is destined to hold to Messiah's kingdom, when
he shall sit and rule as a priest after the Order of Melchizedec, upon the
throne to be established in the heaven, and shall bear the glory of his
Father's house. The vision in the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse is of the
"GREAT WHITE THRONE" of David's Son, encircled by the judicial
thrones of the House of David, to be occupied jointly with him by the apostles
and saints in general, as his ancients, according to his promise. They are the
thrones to be established in the Era of Regeneration; when the Son of Man shall
sit upon the throne of his glory, and the apostles upon twelve thrones
governing the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:19), "then shall Jerusalem
be called THE THRONE OF YAHWEH: and all the nations shall be gathered unto it,
to THE NAME OF YAHWEH, to Jerusalem (Jer. 3:17); and because of its superior
glory, majesty, and power, compared with any other throne that ever was on
earth, or ever shall be for a thousand years; the luminaries of the political
expanse which now shed their rays upon the earth of subject nations, peoples,
and tongues, shall be darkened with a total and permanent eclipse, according to
the testimony of the Spirit that 'the moon shall be confounded, and the sun
ashamed, when Yahweh Tz'vaoth shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and
before his ancients gloriously." - Isa. 24:23.
5
"Upon the Throne One sitting"
"And upon the throne
One sitting. And the One sitting was in appearance like a jasper and a sardine
stone." - Ch. 4:2
He
whom John saw “in spirit" sitting upon the throne; that is, He who will
occupy it when it shall have been established in the heaven, is he whom the
Spirit in Zech. 6:12, styles "THE MAN, whose name is THE BRANCH,' styled
also in ch. 3:8, "My Servant the Branch."
This is the Son of the Deity to whom the throne belongs, and termed
"His
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34
servant,"
because of his manifestation to do
service for Yahweh in "planting the heavens, and laying the
foundations of the earth, and saying unto Zion, "Thou art my people"
(Isa. 51:16); or, as expressed in ch. 49:6, "His servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob, and to restore the desolations of Israel; and also to be for a
light to the nations, and for his salvation to the ends of the earth."
This is the 'One sitting upon the throne" seen of Isaiah as well as by
John. Isaiah saw him "in spirit" upwards of seven hundred years
before he was made of a woman under the law" (Gal. 4:4); John beheld him
in flesh, looked upon him with his eyes, and handled him with his hands, when
he dwelt among the Jews; and seventy years afterwards while an exile in Patmos,
saw a similitude representative of him sitting in Millennial glory upon the
throne of David and of Deity, as indicated in the chapter before us.
Isaiah
being "in spirit" saw him enthroned. "I saw," saith he,
"the ADONAI (plural) sitting
upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. - I SAW THE
KING, Yahweh Tz'vaoth" - ch. 6:1,5. He saw the king of whom the Spirit
afterwards said, "Take away the filthy garments from him" - the
filthy garments of flesh, styled his "iniquity; and let them set a fair
mitre upon his head" - Zech. 3:4,5. This has been accomplished in the
perfecting of Jesus by spirit, as I have expounded it on p.108, vol.1. He is
now prepared to rule the Father's house, and to keep His courts. He is the man,
the Second Adam, to be enthroned upon that eminence, high and lifted up above
all other high places of the political aerial, covenanted by the Eternal Power
to his father David. Ezekiel, when "in spirit," saw him enthroned,
and calls him "a Man"; that is Adam,
not ish; but adam, as indicative of his original identity with the nature of the
first man. John gives us to understand that he whom he saw sitting upon the
throne was not only a man, ish, in
the sense in which the three angel-elohim who appeared to Abraham are so
styled; but that he was adam, a
mortal descended from him who came out of adama,
the ground. This is indicated by what he says in Apoc. 5:6: "I saw,
and behold in the midst of the throne, and of the four living ones,
and in the midst of 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." In these
words he exhibits a combination of flesh and spirit "in the midst of the
throne," and therefore sitting upon it. The flesh is represented by a
living lamb that had been slain, but had recovered from the death-wound. It is
well known to one intelligent in the word, that "lamb" is the metaphor, and in the Apocalypse, the
symbol, of the sacrificial man, Jesus, who was delivered to death for his
people's offenses, and whose mission is to take away the sin of the world; in
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35
other
words, to "destroy that having the power of death," and to destroy
the works of sin - the Diabolos and
all that has originated from the flesh.
The
sacrificial man, Jesus, then, is the apocalyptic lamb, one suspended upon a
cross and forsaken of "the Seven Spirits of the Deity"; and
consequently, not having at that time "seven Horns and seven Eyes";
but now, healed of the wound in his heel by resurrection and ascent to the
Father, and by which he has become consubstantial spirit-flesh with Him, and
therefore possessed of "the seven Spirits of the Deity," or holy
spirit in perfection, by which he is omnipotent and omniscient, seeing and
knowing all things; and therefore "a lamb with seven horns and seven
eyes," and prepared to take up his position "in the midst of the
throne," when a door shall be breached in the heaven, and the throne shall
be established there.
The
Lord Jesus Anointed, then, is the Adam hereafter to sit upon the throne.
Installed in the heaven, the four living ones will give glory, and honor, and
thanks to him; and the twenty and four elders will fall before him, and do
homage, and cast their coronets before him, saying, "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" - ch. 4:9,11.
In
speaking of the appearance of the Man enthroned, John Says, "it was like
to a jasper and sardine stone." He is in this likened to a Stone most
precious; not to a common stone, but to a very brilliant and inestimable living
stone. He is symbolized here by a stone, because he is so designated in the
prophets. In setting forth the military prowess of Joseph's posterity beacharith hayamim, "in the last
one of the days," he predicts that the arms of his hands shall be made
strong by the Mighty One, the Ail and the Shaddai
of Jacob, out of whom is the Shepherd, whom he styles ~THE STONE OF
ISRAEL" - Gen. 49:24.25.
This
Shepherd-Stone is typified in the two onyx stones of the Aaronic ephod, upon
which the names of the twelve tribes were engraved in the order of the birth of
their fathers, and which were to be borne before Yahweh upon the two shoulders
of the one man officiating as High Priest, for a memorial - Exod. 28:9.12.
The
prophet Isaiah also speaks of him to Judah thus: "Sanctify," saith
he, "Yahweh Tz'vaoth himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be
your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary. But also for a Stone of stumbling,
and for a Rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a
snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem" - ch. 8:14. This has in part been
accomplished, and we wait now for this stone to be laid in the identical place
where it was stumbled over; according to the
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36
words
of the Spirit by the same prophet, saying, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation a Stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation;
he that believeth shall not be confounded" - ch. 28:16. This is "the
stone which the builders refused" which will then have "become the
chief of the corner" - Psa. 118:22, the head stone with Seven Eyes brought
forth with shoutings of "Grace, grace, unto it!" -Zech. 3:9; 4:7,10.
Two
precious stones are selected by the Spirit to represent the appearance of the
Man enthroned. These are a Jasper and Sardius. The reason why two are indicated
rather than one, is because THE KING is Spirit and Flesh in combination. Had he
been mere flesh, or spirit uncombined with flesh, one stone would have answered
every purpose; but being deity manifested
in flesh, two precious stones were necessary:
one
to symbolize the Spirit, and the other to represent the Flesh. The jasper is
the spirit symbol. It is a hard stone of various hues, as purple, cerulean,
green. The glory and light of the New Jerusalem community are likened to "
a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal" - ch.
21:11; and in verse 23, this glory and light are styled the glory of the Deity
and the Lamb. The wall of the city is also a jasper, which wall is the symbol
of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb; in other words, of the Spirit, who by
Zechariah has said, "I will be unto Jerusalem a wall of fire round about, and the
glory in the midst of her. Sing and rejoice, 0 daughter of Zion, for, lo, I
come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Yahweh" - ch. 2:5,10. A beautiful cerulean gem clear
as crystal, is the symbol of the Deity's spirit condensed into substance; and
as it is the primary principle of the city whose builder and maker the Deity
is, "the first foundation is a jasper."
The
other gem is named in Hebrew 'odem. These
are the same letters that compose the word applied to the creature Yahweh
Elohim formed from the ground to be the father of our race. By the invention of
the Masorites, instead of being pronounced adam,
it is pronounced odem, and on
being translated into the Greek, the Seventy rendered it by sardion, because found about Sardis. It
is a carnelian, and so called from its color having a resemblance to that of
flesh - a gem, therefore, fitly symbolical of the Adam-element of the one
sitting upon the throne.
The Rainbow about the Throne
"And a Rainbow circled
about the Throne in appearance like an emerald." - Ch. 4.3
The
rainbow is referred to in four places in the scriptures, and it is
EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE. 37
from
these only can be deduced the import of the symbol before us. In nature, the
rainbow is evolved by the action of showery vapor upon the sun's rays, which,
in passing through the aqueous globules, are refracted, and form an arch upon
that part of the clouds opposite to the sun, glowing with all the colors of the
prismatic, or solar, spectrum. The rainbow is never seen except when the sun is shining,
and when rain is falling between the spectator and the part of the horizon
where the bow is seen. These facts must not be lost sight of in considering
the significancy of the rainbow when used as a symbol. Sun, light, rain, cloud,
are elements necessary to the production of the natural bow; so are they also
to the evolution of a symbolical arch in the heaven pertaining to the throne.
In the absence of the Sun of Righteousness from the heaven, and of the light of
life, glory, honor, and power, which he will irradiate the rainbow encircling
the throne cannot be seen. Neither can the light irradiating from Him, be
reflected to the spectator-world from the clouds of immortals about the throne,
until the rain-showers of the heaven shall descend upon the mown grass to
fertilize the earth. These are indispensable conditions to the evolution of the
bow, which is the symbol of a clear and blessed sunshine after previous
"lightnings, thunders, and voices from the throne," contemporaneously
with gently descending rain.
Based
upon these principles, I remark that the order of the bow's development is,
1. The
opening of the heaven by the Stone-Power smiting Nebuchadnezzar's Image
upon the feet;
2. The
establishment of the throne in the heaven by mowing tile earth at harvest
time (ch 14 15), in the storm period
of the lightnings thunders, and voices proceeding from the throne (ch 4 5) by
which the kingdoms of the world are taken possession of by the saints
3. The grass of the earth being thus mown,
its harvest reaped, and its vintage trodden out, the rain of the heaven
descends in the blessing of Abraham upon the nations, which, being subdued are
blessed in Abraham and his Seed or in Jesus and the saints,
4. "As brightness of morning, THE
RULER rises the Sun of an unclouded dawn, shining forth after rain upon the
tender grass of the earth." The effect of this shining is that the
Rainbow-Throne covenanted to David is beheld through the descending rain, which
diffuses the knowledge of its glory to the utmost bounds of the habitable
world.
The
rainbow, then, is the token, or symbol of the Covenant. The bow in the natural
heavens has been so designated by the Spirit from the days of Noah, after his
salvation by water; and all who have looked upon the phenomenon with minds
enlightened by the truth, from his
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38
day
to this, have viewed it as the memorial of Yahweh's covenant. The first place
in which this covenant is alluded to is in Gen. 6:18; it does not follow,
however, that no covenant existed till the time therein indicated. Yahweh had a
covenant which he styled, "My covenant." It was on account of this
covenant that the race of Adam was perpetuated in Noah. If he had not found
favor with Yahweh because of his faith in the covenanted promises, the race
would have been exterminated from the earth. He became "heir of the
righteousness which is by faith"; by that faith, which is "the
substance of things being hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Noah died in this faith "not having received the promises." He has
not received them yet; nor will he receive them "without us," for all the saints of all the generations
are to be perfected together - Heb. 11:7,13,39,40. Hence, the things Noah
believed were the promises of the covenant with which he had been acquainted
several centuries before the Flood. They were the promises made when the lives of
the animals were cut off in Paradise
for Adam's transgression - Gen. 3:15,21. This
covenant was renewed with Noah as its Heir, and afterwards with Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and David. It was the covenant l'doroth
olahm, "for the generations of the hidden period"; and therefore
styled berith olahm, the
"covenant of the hidden period." - Gen. 9:12,16.
Now,
the total destruction of the Adamic race in the line of Cain did not shake
Noah's faith in the covenant. He still hoped for the promises it revealed.
Seeing this, the Eternal Spirit condescended to communicate with Noah, and to
assure him through Angel-Elohim, that no such sweeping destruction by water
should again afflict the race. Hitherto, he had seen the prismatic arch
photographed upon the clouds by clear shining of the sun through the rain; but
he had never beheld it as a token, or sign of any thing else than that the
weather was about to fair off. The time, however, had now arrived when
henceforth he would view it as the symbol of salvation. For Elohim said:
"I have set my bow in the cloud; and it shall be for THE TOKEN OF THE
COVENANT between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass when I bring a
cloud over the earth, that the bow shall he seen in the cloud. And I will look
upon it, that I may remember the covenant of the hidden period between the
Elohim and every living soul of all flesh that is upon the earth."
In
his "visions of the Elohim," Ezekiel beheld the same scene as that
presented to John in Patmos, respecting the Rainbow-Throne. He saw the
appearance of the Man upon the sapphire throne, which he describes as of the
color of amber flaming from the loins upward, and as fire from thence
downwards, and brightness about the whole; which Page 39
brightness
was as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain. All of which represented "the glory of
Yahweh" - ch. 1:26,28. The Man and the throne, and the glory he bears,
being under the bow, are thereby indicated as the subject-matter of the
covenant of which the rainbow is the token, symbol, or sign. This symbol points
to a certain day, styled by Ezekiel, "the Day of Rain." There can be
no bow except in such a day. "The day of rain" is a phrase which
implies the existence of a day in which there is no rain; or, as the saying is
"of a dry time." This is truly the character of the time in which we
live; and not only so, but of all the time symbolized by "the court given to the Gentiles" (Apoc. 11:2), a time
during which they are treading the Holy City under foot; concurrently with which
also the Two Witnesses are prophesying, and the rain consequently, cannot
descend; for "they have power to shut the heaven, that it rain not in the
day of their prophecy" - 11:6.
As
in nature, then, so in grace, no bow can be seen but in a day of rain. At
present every thing is dried up and parched. "All flesh is grass, and all
the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the
flower fadeth; because the spirit of Yahweh bloweth upon it; surely the people
is grass; but the word (preached) of our Elohim shall stand to the hidden
period" - Isa. 40:6. Such being the past, and present, and the future till
the lightnings cease to flash, and the thunders to roll forth from the throne,
no rainbow can or will be seen. It is now a day of perdition for want of rain.
The people are withered, and shriveled up for want of moisture; for their
clergies are wells without water, dry clouds driven about of winds, withered
trees without fruit, from whom no spiritual sustenance can be derived. A day of
rain is the opposite of all this; and that the reader may have some idea of the
nature of things when the bow shall be in manifestation about the throne, I
invite his attention to the following testimonies.
"Give
ear, 0 ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, 0 earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my
speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as
the showers upon the grass; because I will publish the Name of Yahweh;
ascribe ye greatness unto our Elohim. The Rock, his work is perfect; for all
his ways are judgment; an AlL of truth and without iniquity; just and right is
he." - Deut. 32:1. "There is none like the AlL of Yeshurun riding
heavens in thy help, and clouds in his majesty. Elohim of the east a refuge,
and underneath the powers of the hidden Period: and he shall thrust out the
enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. ISRAEL THEN SHALL DWELL IN
SAFETY ALONE: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heaven
Page
40
shall distill dew. Happy thou, 0 Israel; Who
like unto thee, O people, saved by Yahweh, the shield of thy help, and who is
the sword of thy excellency! And thine enemies shall waste away before thee;
and thou halt tread upon their high places" - 33:29. From the above we
learn hat when the name of Yahweh is being published to the peoples of the
leavens and earth, the rain of the heaven is showering, and its dew in
distillation; a state of the aerial favoring the appearance of the bow.
Between
the opening of the door in the heaven, and the going Forth of the lightnings
and thunders, and voices from the heavens, here is no rain to cool off the
sultriness of the aerial. For when the Ensign is lifted up upon the mountains,
and the trumpet is being blown :through the earth, Yahweh saith, "I will
be still (yet in my dwelling-place I will be without fear) as dry heat
impending lightning, as a Cloud of Dew in the heat of harvest" -
Isa. 18:3,4; but when the storm of thunder and lightning has subsided, and
which is to result in presenting Israel before their King; and in bringing them
to the place of the Name of Yahweh Tz'vaoth
the Mount Zion; then "as the rain cometh down, and the snows from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring
forth, and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so
shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return to me
void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace:
the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all
the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 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 Yahweh for a name, for the sign of the hidden period which shall
not be cut off' - Isa. 55:10. This is
the rejoicing of the nations with Israel, all blessed in Abraham and his Seed
"in the day of rain" - the third day in which Israelis raised up, and
lives in Yahweh's sight; whose going forth is prepared as the morning; and he
shall come unto them as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth
- Hos. 6:2,3; see also Joel 2:21-29, in which it is foretold that the Spirit
shall be rained down upon all flesh to the praise of the Name of Yahweh Elohim
in the midst of Israel, dwelling in Zion, his holy mountain; "then shall
Jerusalem be holiness, and there shall no strangers pass through her any
more."
The
symbol of all this blessedness and glory in the day of rain is the
"rainbow circling about the throne in appearance like to an emerald."
The light green, the predominant color, typifying the fertilizing effect of the
rain that forms the bow. The grass of the earth has become tender. It is then
no longer tough and withered, and
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41
parched.
The old grass has perished; and emerald fertility obtains on very side; for the
covenanted glory of Yahweh covers the earth as the waters the area of the deep.
SECTION
2
THE KINGS AND PRIESTS OF THE MOST
HOLY
"And
circling about the throne were twenty-four thrones; and pon the thrones I saw
the twenty and four elders sitting, having been invested with white garments; and
they had upon their heads olden coronal wreaths" - Ch. 4:4.
1. The
Twenty-Four Elders
The
symbolization presented in this verse is representative of the fulfillment of
the promise contained in ch. 3:21, saying, "The victor, I will give to him
to sit with me on my throne, as I
also vanquished, and it with my Father on his throne." To represent this,
twenty-four thrones are circled about one throne; so that in occupying
representatively, that is, by a representative in the vision, one of the thrones,
the individual victor sits with Jesus on his throne; in other words, shares
with him in his kingly and priestly administration of human affairs in the
Millennial Aion.
The
twenty-four elders, then, are the victors or conquerors who live overcome, in
the sense indicated in the writing to the seven ecclesias. Hence, being
victors, enthroned and wreathed, and invested with white, or priestly garments,
we behold them in the vision as kings rid priests for the Deity. We see them as
those who have eaten of the wood of the life, and who are, consequently, in the
Paradise of the Deity; who are, in fact, collectively that living arboretum. We
see them also in a position not to be injured by the second death; in
possession of the Morning Star; clothed in white garments; pillars in the
temple of the Spirit's Deity to go out no more; with the name of Deity written
upon them, the name of the New Jerusalem, even the New Name; for they are the
manifestation of Deity, the New Jerusalem, and the New Fame.
As
Symbolical personages, the twenty-four elders are 'representative. of the
redeemed in their official capacity of kings and priests. This apparent from
the song they join in singing, in which addressing Him upon the rainbowed
throne, they say, "Thou wast slain, and with thy blood hast purchased us
for the Deity from every people, tribe, race,
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42
and
tongue; and hast made us kings and priests for our Deity, and we shall reign
upon the earth" - ch. 5:9,10. They are representative of "the people
taken out from among the nations for the name of the Deity," to Whom it
was testified that "they must through much tribulation enter the kingdom
of God" Acts 15:14; 14:22. This is
the testimony of James and Paul, who are two of the represented. Hence, in the
apocalyptic drama, one of the elders declares the origin of the class invested
with white garments (which is also the investment of the twenty-four), and in
so doing the origin of himself and company, saying, "These are they who
came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white
in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of the Deity, and serve him day and night in his
temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall
hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them,
nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them,
and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and the Deity shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes" -7:14.
2. Of
the Number "Twenty-Four"
The
twenty-four elders in the temple are a verification in symbol of these
promises. The Lamb is there in the midst of them, and all tears are dried from
their eyes. They are before the throne, and in the temple ready for service
continually. The white garments with which they had been invested indicate the
priestly office of the elders. They are "clothed with salvation"
(Psa. 132:16), having been raised from among the dead, and invested with holy
spirit nature consubstantially with the High Priest sitting upon the throne.
They are victor kings as well as priests, as indicated by their wreaths of
gold; and they are "elders," because representatives of their class.
Each elder is the symbol of an order, all the immortals being apportioned into
twenty-four orders of royal priests after the type of David's divisions of the
Sons of Aaron into four and twenty orders - 1 Chron. 24. Aaron was a type of
Christ in his family and official relations, though not his order. He had two sons,
Eleazar and Ithamar; the former name signifying "God is his helper;"
and the latter, "the place of Palm Trees." In David's time, Zadok was
the chief of Aaron's sons in the line of Eleazar; and Ahimelech of those of
Ithamar. Zadok signifies "the just one," and Ahimelech "the
brother of the king." The interpretation of these names collectively is
"God is (Israel's) helper" in "the place of palm trees," by
"the Just One," the "fellow of the King." There were
Page 43
more
chief men of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar. There were
sixteen of the former, and eight of the latter; which together made twenty-four
elders at the head of as many orders of priests, descendants of Aaron in the
kingdom of David, that they might be princes of the sanctuary, and princes of
the Elohim.
Such
being the priestly arrangement in David's kingdom, the symbols representative
of it in the restoration of the constitution, "as in the days of
old," are derived from its ancient polity. When the Lord Jesus shall sit
upon David's throne, "he will sit and rule as a priest upon the throne,
and bear the glory;" and as High Priest be the head of the houses of
Eleazar and Ithamar, which are represented by the numbers sixteen and eight, or
twenty-four. According to this, Eleazar and Ithamar constitute his priestly
household. Sixteen of the Elders in John's vision are figuratively of the house
of Eleazar, and eight of the house of Ithamar; or, if named by their
representatives in the time of David, sixteen are of the house of Zadok, and
eight of the house of Ahimelech. Not, however, fleshly descendants of these
men; for in the reconstruction of the government of Israel's commonwealth,
"the flesh profits nothing." All in Christ are "made priests for
the Deity," by the fact of being in him; and as he takes the place of
Aaron, all in him take the place of Aaron's sons, and become, by adoption, thus
the sons of Zadok. This change of persons does not alter the ordering of
things. The twenty-four orders of priests will still obtain in the restored
kingdom of David; and are therefore foreshadowed in John's vision as encircling
the throne. Collectively, they are Zadok, the
just, and Ithamar, "the place of palm trees;" for they are washed
from their sins in the blood of the Just One; and are represented in ch. 7:9,
as "before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;" the emblems
of salvation and victory. They are also Ahimelech
in the presence of David's Son. They are many in one; all of them the children
of a King; children given to Jesus for his brethren; and therefore collectively
"the brother of the King," or Christadelphians.
These
twenty-four elders, then, are the twenty-four orders of the Sons of Zadok, who
shall enter into the sanctuary of Yahweh Elohim, and come near to His table to
minister unto Him, and shall keep His charge - Ezek. 44:15,16. The flesh and blood descendants of Aaron, who ministered
in the holy and most holy places in the Mosaic Olahm, will not be permitted in
the Millennial Aion to come near unto the throne encircled by the elders.
"They shall not come near unto me, saith Yahweh Elohim, to do the office
of priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things in the Most Holy;
but they shall bear
Page
44 .
their
shame, and their abominations which they have committed. But 1 will make them
keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all
that shall be done therein" - verses 13,14. Thus the natural descendants
of Aaron are degraded to an inferior station in the new heavens and earth. They
were unfaithful to the Deity under the law. They turned their backs upon him
when Israel went astray after their idols, before which they ministered, and
caused them to fall into iniquity; and "therefore, saith Yahweh Elohim, I
lifted up my hand against them, and they shall bear their iniquity." This
they will have to do during the thousand years; in which the saints will fill
up the vacancy created by their degradation from their ancient rank near the
throne to that of standing before the people to minister to them -verse 11.
But
besides the twenty-four orders of Aaron's sons, there were, in the
ecclesiastical department of David's kingdom, twenty-four orders of Levites,
sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, whom he separated for the temple service,
"to prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals, to give thanks
and to praise Yahweh Tz'vaoth" The
number of those "who were instructed in the songs of Yahweh," were
two hundred and eighty-eight, and were divided into twenty-four companies of
twelve each, "as well the small as the great, the teacher as the
scholar" being reckoned in each twelve - 1 Chron. 25:1,3,7. These were
also typical of those symbolized by the twenty-four elders who were represented
to John in ch. 5:8, as "having each one harps and golden censers full of
incense, which are the prayers of the saints; and they sang a new song."
There are twenty-four symbolical elders because the sons of the High Priest and
the singers who did the service of the temple under David's reign were
twenty-four orders each; and in the aggregate typified the saints, the Elohim
of Israel, who shall perform the temple service of the restored kingdom of
David, when David's Son, the "Greater than Solomon," shall be High
Priest of the kingdom after the Order of Melchizedec. The twenty-four elders
represent both the priests and singers of the Ezekiel Temple which is to be
built by "the man whose name is The Branch" Zech. 6:12,15. There will be twenty-four
orders "as in the days of old" - Amos 9:11; who will be "the
harpers harping with their harps, and singing a new song" - Apoc. 14:2,3;
even "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the
Lamb" - ch. 15:2-4.
First
in design, last in execution, is the order of the apocalyptic visions. The
Spirit designs the priestly manifestation of the kingdom, as exhibited in the
beginning of this fourth chapter; but it will be the last in execution, for the
manifestation cannot obtain until the saints have
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45
become
victorious over the potentates of the earth. "The victor shail be clothed
in white garments;" and it is stated that "the twenty-four elders had
been invested with white garments;" which is as much as to say that their
wars were over; that they had destroyed the Fourth Beast of Daniel; and that
they had taken possession of the kingdom under the whole heaven, and were now
entered upon their priestly functions in the presence of the Melchizedec High
Priest sitting upon the rainbowed or covenanted throne "in the day of
rain."
SECTION
3
THE LIGHTNINGS AND
THUNDERS AND VOICES
"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." - Ch. 4.5.
1.
The Lightnings
The
throne established in the heaven in its inauguration is a throne of judgment;
so that when the throne is set, "the judgment is set and the books are
opened" - Dan. 7:10. This throne is "the Great White Throne"
seen of John in ch. 20:11. It is all conquering; for from before the face of
him who is to sit upon it, he says, "the earth and the heaven fled away;
and there was found no place for them." In other words, the Fourth Beast
dominion was destroyed; and the other three beasts had their dominion taken
away. At this crisis Daniel describes the throne as being a fiery flame, and
the wheels, or hosts that obeyed its mandates burning fire. He speaks of them
as thousand thousands, and ten' thousand times ten thousand. These he says,
ministered to the King and stood before him; and in their going forth compares
them to "a fiery stream issuing and coming forth from before him "The
Spirit in David says, "He makes his ministers a flaming fire and therefore in this scene of the
apocalypse, they are symbolized by "lightnings" with their attendant
"thunders and voices David also
says prophetically "
Yahweh,
bow thine heavens, and come down touch the mountains, and they will smoke,
flash forth lightning, and scatter them send thine arrows, and discomfit
them, and the Spirit in Zechariah,
foretelling the dissipation of the power of the sons of Greece at the advent,
says: "I will render double unto thee, when I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up
thy sons, 0 Zion,
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46
against
thy sons, 0 Greece, and made thee (Zion) as the sword of a Mighty Man. And
Yahweh shall be seen over them, and his arrow (Ephraim) shall go forth as the
lightning; and Yahweh Elohim shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with
whirlwinds of the south" - ch. 9:13. The teaching of this testimony is,
that "in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall," there
will be war between Israel and the rest of the world. That this war will have
been kindled by the Messiah after his return. That he will be seen at the head
of the armies of Israel, as their Commander, surrounded by the Sons of Zion,
whom he will have raised up. He and they will be the captains of Israel, of
whom Judah will be the bow, and Ephraim, or the Ten Tribes, his arrow. When this
military organization is put into operation, and it goes forth for conquest in
"the war of the great day of the Almighty Deity" (Rev. 16:14), it
will issue forth as "a fiery stream" from the throne, burning with
the fire of the King's indignation; as lightnings flashing from the throne of
David's Lord and echoing their thunders and voices, from one end of the earth
to the other, until "the controversy of Zion" shall be settled beyond
all cavil or dispute. "In that day I will make the Governors of Judah as a
hearth of fire among the wood, and as a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they
shall devour all the peoples round about on the right hand and on the left; and
Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, in Jerusalem" - Zech.
12:6. These "governors" are the saints in lightning operation against
the dominions symbolized by the four beasts of Daniel.
2. The
Thunders.
Lightning
is what philosophy terms electricity in luminous excitation. Scripturally, it
is the "free Spirit of the Deity. Thunder is the. sound produced by the
electrical condensation of the constituents of the aerial. The free oxygen and
hydrogen floating in the air are electrically combined, and thereby caused to
occupy less space than before, and so giving out lightning, and forming a
vacuum, into which the surrounding air rushes, causing a loud report, or
thunder. Hence, it is an appropriate symbol for that operation by which the
temporary constituents of the political aerial (and the things which are seen
there are temporary) are condensed into one dominion under the glorious
luminary of the New Heavens. Jesus named the sons of Zebedee "the Sons of
Thunder." These were James, and his brother John, to whom this vision of
thunder was revealed. The agents in this throne-scene are all sons of thunder.
They are the Spirit~incarnations condensing all things into one kingdom with
the thundering tumult of war in ch. 10:3,
Page. 47
symbolized
by "the Seven Thunders," whose utterances are "seale( up"
till the storm-period which precedes "the day of rain" when the bow
appears.
3. The
Seven Lamps of Fire.
The
whole scene is a manifestation of Spirit in preparation for the reduction of
the great mountain before Zerubbabel to the level of a plain. This is to be
effected, not by ordinary military prowess or force, 'but by my Spirit saith
Yahweh of Hosts" - Zech. 4:6. He that sits upon the throne is spirit,
those represented by the twenty-four elders will be Spirit like him, and those
symbolized by the four living ones will be Spirit also; so that all that is
manifested is an embodiment of spirit, and all effected by the manifested ones
is done by the energy of Divine Power. This power is symbolized by the
"Seven Lamps of Fire burning before the throne." These are
interpreted to signify "the Seven Spirits of the Deity:" not that
there are seven distinct and independent spirits. We learn from Paul that there
is but "One Spirit;" which one was represented to John by the symbol
of perfection, "seven lamps of fire." In ch. 5:6, these seven lamps are termed "seven horns and seven
eyes." The reason why the Spirit is symbolized by stationary lamps burning
before the throne, as in ch. 4, is because it is connected with the throne in
Zion as its fountain or reservoir - "all my springs are in thee,
Zion;" but, as "seven horns and seven eyes" upon a lamb, in
locomotion (ch. 14:4) the one spirit is represented as "sent forth"
from Zion, "unto all the earth."
The
lightnings, and thunders, and voices, then, are those of the one spirit in
seven-fold perfection sent forth into all the earth for the Subjugation of the
world. The spirit, however, does not go forth as free, uncombined, or naked
spirit, as seen in the lightning and heard in the thunder of the material
expanse. But it goes forth incarnated in the Saints in the Lord Jesus and his brethren; who are
symbolized by the One sitting upon the throne and the twenty-four elders, and
the four living ones.
4. When tlie Seven Spirits go
forth.
The
time when they begin to go forth into all the earth is, of course, subsequently
to their resurrection. The sons of Zion are to be raised up against the sons of
Greece, or the Gentiles. Being resurrected, they are in readiness to
"follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth" ch. 14:4. "Blessed are
the dead dying in the Lord, haparti, at
Page
48
this
time." The epoch has then arrived for the generations of the righteous,
who have previously died in the Lord, to be blessed - to take possession of the
kingdom, or dominion, having been prepared for them from the foundation of the kosmos, or existing order of things; for
all things are for their sakes - Matt. 25:34;
2 Cor. 4:15. At that time, they are to "take possession of the
kingdom, under the whole heaven," "that they may take rest out of
their labors; yea, saith the spirit, for he follows their works with them"
- 14:13.
The
time when the Lord's dead ones are blessed, is when they have consummated the
work symbolized by the sickles, which are set to work by the voices that
proceed from the spirit throne with the lightnings and thunders. There are
three voices. One announces their resurrection-blessedness; the second
proclaims the harvesting of the earth, and the third the gathering the clusters
of the earth's vine - ch. 14:13,15,18. These
voices belong to the Seventh Vial, which is the last period of the Seventh
Trumpet, by which the Seventh Seal is consummated in all the events thereof.
The wrath of the Deity is then exhausted, and peace reigns for the thousand years
ensuing - ch. 15:1. Until these
lightnings, and thunders, and voices shall cease to proceed from the throne,
"no man can enter into the temple" - verse
8. Hence, the exhibition of the
twenty-four priestly elders in the temple, is a scene that obtains, after "the war of the great day of
the Almighty Deity" is over. The saints are then victors, and can give law
and religion to the world. Hence, the Seventh Angel pours out his vial, into
THE AlR; the result of which is that when it is emptied, "a great voice
out of the temple of the heaven from the throne, says, "IT IS DONE. But
while it is pouring out by the saints who are engaged in taking the kingdom
under the whole heaven, "there are voices, and thunders, and lightnings;
and a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so
mighty an earthquake and so great" -ch. 16:17. This will be the time of
trouble Daniel speaks of in ch. 12:1, to result in the abolition of all human
governments, and the establishment of the kingdom of the Deity.
5. The
Translucent Sea.
"Before the Throne a
translucent sea, like to crystal" -Verse 6.
In
prophetic writing '”Sea" is representative of nations. It is thus used in
Ezek. 26:3, where Yahweh Elohim addressing Tyre, says, "I am against thee,
and will cause many nations to come
up against thee,
Page 49
as
the sea causeth his waves to come
up." Here the waves of the sea represent the military forces of the
nations marching against any enemy. Also in Jer. 51:42,43, the forces of the Medes and Persians which captured
Babylonia are styled the sea; as "the sea is come up upon Babylon: she is
covered with the multitude of the waves thereof: her cities are a
desolation."
Daniel's
four great beasts are represented as arising out of the Great Sea, or
Mediterranean, as the result of the striving of the four winds upon it. These
four beasts are systems of powers which arose out of conflicts of the nations
inhabiting that portion of the earth the central sea of which is the
Mediterranean. Hence, this sea became their representative in the prophecy. It
is also so used in the Apocalypse into the symbols of which it has been
transferred, and with them incorporated. The beast having seven heads and ten
horns exhibited in ch. 13:1, is a combination of Daniel's four, and therefore
represented as "rising up out out of the sea," which of course, is
the same sea.
The
second trumpet was prepared to "blow upon the sea; and when it sounded the
great Attila mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third
part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in
the sea, and had life died; and the third part of the ships were
destroyed." - Apoc. 8:8. This was a representation of the judgments that
were to fall upon the peoples of the Roman West occupying that third part of
the great sea region and scourged by Attila and his Huns, as Moesia, Thrace,
Macedonia, myria, Lombardy, and so forth. But, until the Sealing Angel had done
his work upon the servants of the Deity, the Angel of the second trumpet was
commanded not to hurt the sea - ch. 7:1,3
The
rainbowed angel that descends from the heaven, is represented in ch. 10:2,5, as
planting his right foot upon the sea, and swearing that henceforth "there
should be no delay in the finishing up of the mystery of the Deity as he had
declared the good news," or gospel of the kingdom, "to his servants
the prophets." This is the same sea; and the right foot of the angel
resting upon it, indicates that it is to be Subjected to the judgments of the
Seven Thunders from the throne as well as the earth, or interior regions.
In
chap. 12:12, the sea is again introduced in the words, "Woe to the
inhabitants of the earth and the sea! for the Devil is come down Unto you,
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."
Here the sea is regarded as an inhabited region to which
Devil
would pay a visit in wrath. In this text it represents those provincial regions
of the Fourth Beast habitable in which the last struggle for power between the Catholic and Pagan
factions was to
page
50
ensue,
subsequently to the expulsion of the "what withholdeth," from the
Roman Heaven, in the Constantinian epoch - 2 Thess. 2:6,7.
In
chap. 16:3, the second angel-power is exhibited as pouring out his vial upon
the sea; "and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul
died in the sea." Here is a sea of
living souls in anything else than a translucent state like to crystal. It
was opaque with human blood to excess, as symbolized by the death of all the
souls it contained. The naval anti-revolutionary war, which commenced in 1793,
and continued with brief intermissions till 1815,
illustrates this judgment upon the sea. It is a sea of living souls noted
for their wickedness; and hence it is that the Spirit speaking of them, says,
"The wicked are like a troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast
up mire and dirt. No peace for the wicked, saith my Elohim." - Isa.:57:20.
This
is the present condition of the Apocalyptic sea, representative of the nations of
the four beasts of Daniel; the people of the interior, as of Germany, Hungary,
Poland, Russia, and so forth, being represented by "the earth." The
sea-nations are more especially before, or in the presence of the throne; the
earth-nations being more remote. Nevertheless, the nations, or "inhabiters
of the earth and sea," are all of the same character, and in the hour of
judgment "equally obnoxious to the wrath of the Deity. They are both a
dead and a troubled sea, and so charged with mire and dirt," that nothing
can make it transparent to the light of the divine glory, but the judgments of
the Deity - the bolts of the seven thunders pealing from the throne: "when
his judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn
righteousness;" and "all nations shall come and worship before
Yahweh; because his judgments are made manifest" -Isa. 26:9; Apoc. 15:4.
This,
then, is the purpose of the Deity upon the sea; to make it "like to
crystal," transparent with righteousness and truth. This is the mission of
Yahweh's servant when he comes in power to enlighten the earth with his glory.
But this must be preceded by judgments upon the sea. The representation of this
is found in Apoc. 15:2, in which John
says: "I saw as it were a translucent sea that had been mingled with fire (memigmenen
perf. part pass.)." But the fire had ceased to burn, and those who had
gained the victory over the sea of nations, he also saw standing upon it, and
with their harps celebrating their victory over the Papal and other dominions,
and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. The fire with which the sea will
have been mingled is the wrath of the Deity contained in the Seven Thunders, or
terrors of the Seventh Vial, to be hurled from the throne by Jesus and his
Brethren, who
page
51
constitute
the Rainbowed Angel, "whose face is as the sun, and his feet as pillars of
fire" - ch. 10:1.
When
these judgments, which make the Deity "a consuming fire" (and
"the Spirit follows with them," the saints) when they shall have
subsided, "the Mystery of the Deity will be finished." The sea of
nations will be no more lashed into fury and tempest for a thousand years. In
the presence of David's throne it will be tranquil; and its waters so
translucent, that those who stand upon it, having calmed its tempests and
quieted its waves, will see into its utmost depths. But though at rest for a
thousand years, and the power of the Satan submerged in the abyss, the sea will
again become tempestuous, and cast up mire and dirt. "In the flesh dwells
no good thing," and "it lusteth against the Spirit." At the end
of the Millennial Period it becomes impatient of restraint, and the nations
rebel against the saints who will have ruled them with a rod of iron so long in
righteousness and peace. As "the sand of the sea" they again try
conclusions with the saints; and as before the saints subdue them with a
crushing and final overthrow. The end of flesh and blood upon the earth will
have then arrived, and there will be "no
more sea" - ch. 20:8; 21:1. A full end will then be made of all
nations - Jer. 30:11. The nations of the earth and sea will then be superseded
by "THE ISRAEL OF GOD," every individual of whom, of all orders and
degrees, will be consubstantial with the Deity, and the occupant of this then
glorious planet which shall never be removed.
SECTION
4
THE FOUR LIVING ONES
"In the midst of the
throne and in the circle of the throne Four Living Ones being full of eyes
before and behind." - Verse 6.
These
four living ones being "in the midst of the throne and in the circle of
the throne," must be symbolical of those represented by the twenty-four
elders, that is, of the saints. The elders, as we have seen, are representative
of the saints in the peaceful exercise of their sacerdotal and regal functions,
"resting from their labors" performed in "the war of the great
day of the almighty Deity", while the four living ones represent the
saints in cooperation with the Spirit carrying on the war to its victorious
consummation.
In
the Common Version these four are styled "beasts." The word in the
original is zoa, and signifies simply living
ones. In Ezek. 1:5, they
Page
52
are
styled chaiyoth, rendered in the E.V.
"living creatures." They
are symbols representative of what is to be, not of what is yet manifested.
That which is to be manifested exists, but the form of manifestation does not.
That which exists is the all-pervading spirit radiant from the Divine
Substance; but the spirit-forms, which do not exist, are the dead saints. These
must be raised, and then transformed into spirit-bodies, instinct with life and
power omnipotent; a transformation which in all its elements is aggregately
represented by these "four living ones full of eyes before and behind."
The
Spirit of the Deity, then, is the great reservoir of power out of which they
are born or developed. "That which hath been born out of spirit is
spirit." These are the words of Jesus to Nicodemus. The glorified saints,
glorified after resurrection, are therefore spirit multitudinously manifested,
and isaggebi, equal to angels. In his
"Visions of Elohim," Ezekiel beheld this manifestation of the saints
out of spirit in symbolic representation. He tells us that he was looking in a
northerly direction, and in the distance behold "a whirlwind, A GREAT
CLOUD, and a fire came out of the North." This was the Spirit in
tempestuous and destructive operation. But to show that it was not free spirit,
but embodied spirit, he goes on to say, that out of the midst of the fire
issued forth "the likeness of four living creatures." He then
describes their appearance, and afterwards remarks concerning their movements,
that they were identical with those of the spirit; for "they went,"
saith he, "every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they
went"; and of this going, John says, it was "into all the
earth." They went with the Seven Spirits of the Deity, for they will be
the seven spirits embodied. Hence the terms applied to the seven spirits by
John, are applied to the four by Ezekiel, who says they were like burning coals
of fire and like lamps; and that out of the fire, that is, from them went forth
lightning; and that they ran and returned as a flash of lightning.
But
though Ezekiel introduces them as four living ones and four wheels in ch.
1:5,16, in referring to them in ch. 10:15, he speaks of them as one, saying,
"this is hachaiyah, THE LIVING
ONE." In other words, the individuals of whom this Spirit manifestation is
composed are, in the aggregate, what the voice issuing from their midst
proclaims without intermission day and night, namely, the thrice or
superlatively holy YAHWEH, the Omnipotent Deity, who was, and who is, and who is coming - Apoc. 4:8. These are the ONE BODY, nearly all the atoms of
which are now in death, "sleeping in the dust." But, speaking of them
as they are now in reference to its future, the Spirit styles them "MY
DEAD BODY," and says "they shall arise," and, in view of the
resurrec Page 53
tion,
exclaims, "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust." When they come
forth from the dust they are no longer the Spirit's Dead Body, but they become
the Spirit's Living One, and can then say, "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, the Amen." Jesus is the visible Head of these. Without Him the
Living One would be incomplete -Isa. 26:19; Rev. 1:18.
Ezekiel
clearly indicates what was represented by the four living ones and their wheels
in ch. 1:24. He says, "The noise of their wings was like the noise of
great waters, as the voice of shaddai, MIGHTY
ONES, the voice of speech, as the noise of a host." This was equivalent to
saying that their wings represented "great waters," which represented
"Mighty Ones," who gave utterance to their will and purpose, and that
there was a multitude of them. These were the waters John heard responsive to
the voice issuing from the throne, saying, "Praise our Deity, all ye his
servants, and ye that fear him, small and great." "I heard,"
says he, "the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, hallelu Yah, praise ye YAH; for YAHWEH Elohim the Omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give
the glory to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made
herself ready" ch. 19:6. This
glorious multitude will be the embodiment of the power that is "to execute
vengeance upon the nations and punishments upon the peoples; to bind their
kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them
the judgment written:" that is to perform all those things I have sketched
under the caption of "The Apocalypse
Rooted in the Prophets" - from page 41 to 85, vol.1; to set up the kingdom and to establish glory to the
Deity in the highest heaven, over the earth peace and goodwill among men.
These
four living ones and the four wheels are "THE CHARIOT OF THE
CHERUBIM." They are the chariot in which the Deity rides forth to battle
against the enemies of the house of David, and upon which he sits enthroned
over Israel. This appears from 2 Sam. 22:11, and Psa. 80:1. In the former
place, Yahweh is said to ride upon a cherub; and in the latter, to inhabit the
cherubim. The etymology of the word is regarded as obscure. In view of this, I
would suggest that we may take the root charav,
as having been the same with kharav, to
waste, to destroy, from which comes, kherev,
a sword. This derivation is suggested by the text where kheruvim, or cherubim, first occurs in the scriptures; as, "Yahweh Elohim
placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the flaming sword
which turned itself to guard the way of the tree of the lives." By
rendering wav, by even, instead of
Page 54
"and,"
it would make the flaming sword expletive of the cherubim; as, "the
cherubim, even the flaming sword" - the flame containing the cherubic
power, as Ezekiel's "whirlwind, great clouds, and fire," did the four
living ones he saw.
But,
be the true etymology what it may, it is certain that they are symbols of a wasting and destroying power. When
their wings are expanded they are in lightning operation; when let down, they
are standing, and either preparing for action or "resting from their
labors." They are "full of eyes before and behind;" or, as
Ezekiel says, "their whole basar, flesh,
even their backs, and their hand, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of
eyes round about." An eye is the symbol of intelligence; and when a
multitude of eyes are aggregated together, each eye indicates a particular or
individual intelligence. Ezekiel informs us that the eyes were in flesh which was full of them. Each eye,
then, was a flesh-intelligence; and, as the four had each a human face and
hand, and were endowed with the faculty of speech, the intelligence was that of
a man. Hence, each eye is representative of a man; and as the four sing,
"Thou hast redeemed us," each eye is symbolical of a saint. The eyes
are "a great multitude which no man can number;" yet they are
symbolized by four, by 144,000, by a city lying four-square, and 144 cubits -
that is, these numbers are symbolical of the saints; first, in relation to
their encampment; second to their nationality; third, to their municipality;
and fourth to their corporation limit.
1.
Seraphim Identical with Cherubim
In
Isa. 6:2, these cherubic symbols are styled seraphim.
"I saw the Adonai," saith he, "sitting upon a throne, high
and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. SERAPHS stood near to it. . . .
And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, YARWEH TZ'VAOTH (He who
shall be hosts): the whole earth (shall be) full of his glory." There is
no obscurity about the etymology of seraph.
It signifies burning, fiery, deadly. The fiery serpents sent among the
people (Numb. 21:6) are styled by Moses seraphim.
By the saints, the seraphim and cherubim of Messiah's throne, the whole
earth is to be filled with his glory. Being incarnations of Spirit, they will
be more than a match for all the powers of the world. They will cast down their
thrones, overthrow Babylon, waste the land of Assyria, reap the harvest of the
earth, tread the winepress of wrath, and as a stream of devouring fire destroy
the body of Daniel's fourth polity with their burning flame.
2.
The Four Faces.
In the
Most Holy Place of the Temple of Solomon there were two
Page 55
cherubic
figures, which stood opposite to each other, with wings outstretched over the
Ark of the Covenant. Each of these had four faces, which were so ordered that
four different faces of the eight should look down upon the caphporeth, coverlid, mercyseat, or
propitiatory. By this arrangement, the face of the lion, of the ox, of the man,
and of the eagle, all looked upon the coverlid on which was sprinkled the
sacrificial blood of the great day. Though the number of the cherubim varies,
the faces are always four. In the temple there was one body to four faces.
Ezekiel saw four bodies with four faces each, and John saw four bodies, each
body having one face. But though the number of the bodies differed, they were
only the subdivisions of a general whole.
The
faces are the faces of the Spirit. The show-bread placed on the golden table in
the holy place is styled "the bread of the Faces taken from before the
Faces of Yahweh," when it was given by the priest to David - 1 Sam. 21:6.
The faces of Yahweh were the cherubim faces over against the table embroidered
on the curtain of the tabernacle. They symbolized the Spirit in
flesh-manifestation and were therefore the faces of the Spirit.
Now
collectively the saints are an encampment, and are so represented in Rev. 20:9;
where it is stated, that the rebel nations at the close of the Millennium go up
against the "camp." As the saints are "the Israel of the
Deity;" and though by the accident of birth multitudes of them were once
Gentiles, yet by adoption through Jesus were grafted into the Commonwealth of
Israel; they necessarily partake of its national organization. The camp of the
saints, then, has its ensigns in conformity with those of the four camps into
which the twelve tribes were distributed, whose captains or princes they
become. From Numb. 2 we learn that the whole host of Israel was marshalled
about four standards: the first, that of Judah; the second, of Reuben; the
third, of Ephraim; and the fourth, of Dan; and in the midst of these four grand
divisions was the camp of the priests and saints, and in their midst the
tabernacle, in which was the throne of Yahweh over the Mercy Seat and between
the Cherubim. Now, of these several camps of fighting men the following were
their ensigns: first, the Lion, which symbolized the camp of Judah; second, the
Man that of Reuben; third, the Ox that of Ephraim; and fourth, the Eagle for
the camp of Dan. Hence it is that the Lamb in Rev. 5:5, is styled "the Lion
of the Tribe of Judah." Being descended from that tribe, and the King of
the nation too, the royalty of which belongs to Judah, he is symbolized by the
ensign; and as the king is thus designated, so all his brethren, the saints,
are apocalyptically divided into camps about the throne; each camp being
represented by a living one; and the ensigns of the camps
Page
56
borrowed
from the nation they are to rule. And that the reader may not erroneously
suppose that the four living ones represent the fleshly descendants of Abraham,
their standards are enumerated after a different order; it being first, the
lion; second, the ox; third, the man; and fourth, a flying eagle.
Apocalyptically,
then, we have the whole multitude of resurrected and accepted saints marshalled
into four camps in the midst of, and circling about the throne; and according
to the law, "every man of the children of Israel pitching by his own
standard with the ensign of his father's house." There will be the east
camp composed of three gates, or tribes; on the north three; on the south
three; and on the west three, ch. 21:12,13; all ready to go forth following the
Head to the place it may indicate (Ezek. 10:11) on the mission of the chariots
and horses, of which we have treated already on page 74, vol.1. In the new song
they sing they say, "We shall reign on the earth;" not "we do
reign." They go forth energized by the spirit to establish their dominion,
and to fill the earth with glory; so that when their victory is complete they
may as royal priests of the Deity, cast the coronal wreaths they have acquired
before the throne; that he who sits upon it, whom in their wars they will have
followed whithersoever he led them, may receive the glory and honor and power;
for the reason that he has "created all things, and for his pleasure they
are and were created."
DIAGRAM OF THE PLAN OF THE TABERNACLE ON PAGE 56 WAS NOT
COPIED, SEE BOOK
Portion of the symbology of The Apocalypse is based on the
Tabernacle.
page
57
Chapter 5
1. And I saw at the right of Him, seated
upon the throne a SCROLL that had been written within and on the outside,
sealed up with SEVEN SEALS.
2. And I saw a powerful messenger
heralding with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to unroll the scroll, and to
loose its seals?"
3. But no one was able in the heaven, nor
upon the earth, nor under the earth, to unroll the scroll, nor to see it.
4. And I shed many tears, because no one
was found worthy to unroll and to read the scroll, nor to see it.
5. But one of the elders saith unto 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 its seven seals.
6. And I saw, and behold in midst of the
throne and of the four Living Ones, and in the midst of the Elders, a LAMB
having stood as having been slain, having Seven Horns and Seven Eyes, the which
are the SEVEN SPIRITS of the Deity, having been sent forth into all the earth.
7. And he went and received the scroll
from the right of Him seated upon the throne.
8. And when he received the scroll, the
four Living Ones, and the twenty-four Elders prostrated themselves before the
Lamb, having every one harps, and golden bowls full of perfumes, the 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 tribe, race,
people, tongue;
And mad 'St us kings and
priests t'our God,
And we upon the earth shall
reign."
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 thousand and thousands of thousands,
Page 58
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 on the earth, and underneath the earth, and upon
the sea, even all the things in them, I heard saying,
"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!"
And
the four Living Ones said, "So LET IT BE!" And the twenty-four Elders
prostrated themselves, and did homage to him that liveth for the Aions of the
Aions.
NOTE PICTURE PAGE 58 NOT COPIED
A
Jerusalem Yemenite scribe writing a scroll of the Law. The "book" or
scroll seen by John was written within and on the outside for it symbolized
events relating to the Ecclesia and to the world, But it was sealed with seven
seals, and so completely hidden from human sight until opened by the Lion of
the Tribe of Judah. and its contents revealed for the edification of the
"servants of the Deity". Page
59
SECTION
1
GENERAL
REMARKS
In
the previous chapter is exhibited "the manifestation of the Sons of the
Deity" in the presence of the Eternal Creator, subsequently, of course, to
the resurrection of the saints. "The adoption, to wit, the redemption of the Body" from the power of the
grave is accomplished; and the time is come for them to execute the judgment
given them, and to take the kingdom and possess it under the whole heaven. The
chapter represents them as prepared for action, "according to the energy
whereby" He who sitteth upon the throne, "is able to subdue all
things to himself." They have joyfully acknowledged his lordship
themselves, and cast their coronal wreaths before Him in recognition of the
Sovereign Power whence they were derived; and they declare that He is worthy of
universal glory, honor, and power, which it is their mission, as the embodiment
of the Seven Spirits, to establish in all the earth. "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."
But
after what course, or successive development of things among the nations, is
such an extraordinary consummation to be accomplished? "As I live,"
saith Yahweh, "the whole earth shall be full of my glory." "It
shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." True, 0 Lord; but how
shall it be effected; in what sequence of events; and by whom? In the time of
the Apostle John this was a matter of great interest. In his day the saints
were engaged in a severe and perilous conflict with Caesar, who had learned
sufficient of their doctrine to know that the Pagan or any other human
constitution of the world was incapable of contemporaneous existence with the
kingdom proclaimed and longed for by the saints. But, though Caesar made war
upon them they were not to avenge themselves; how, then, could the kingdom
promised them be established? How could a door be opened in the heaven, and the
throne of their kingdom be established there to the entire exclusion of Caesar
and his representatives? Would it be
consequent upon and coeval with the downfall of paganism? Or would it be many
ages after that event? And, whenever the time came, by what means will the
Eloah of the heavens set up the kingdom, and break in pieces the government of
the nations? These were questions "the servants of the Deity" needed
light upon. They had the prophets, it is true; and among these Daniel
especially: but still there were mysteries "sealed up and closed" in
their writings which required
Page 60 EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE.
information
not yet extant to make them intelligible. Daniel "heard, but understood
not," neither did any of his contemporaries ch. 12:8; 8:27. Nor should we err if we were to
say that this state of mind was characteristic of all the saints previous to
the giving of this revelation, styled the Apocalypse, to Jesus Anointed. They
"none of them understood" the development of the mystery the Deity
had declared to his servants the prophets - Rev. 10:7. Nor need we be surprised
at this when we consider that even after the mystery was solved by revelation,
multitudes existed in and near John's time who had to confess that they could
not comprehend the exposition of the enigma. They needed one to expound the
exposition. Among these was Dionysius, styled by Eusebius the ecclesiastical
historian contemporary with Constantine, "the great bishop of
Alexandria." He flourished in the middle of the third century as an
opponent of the thousand years' reign of Christ upon earth with his saints
after their resurrection, which was ignorantly and maliciously ascribed to one
Cerinthus, contemporary with the Apostle John, as its inventor. But Daniel
taught the doctrine nearly seven hundred years before Cerinthus was heard of,
as may be seen in the Apocalypse as contracted in his seventh chapter.
Cerinthus may have grafted upon it some foolishness of his own; but of the
doctrine itself he was no more the inventor than the Pope of Rome.
There
are two works ascribed to Dionysius On the Promises. " They were written
to oppose the idea that the promises given to holy men in the scriptures should
be understood more as the Jews understood them, and that there would be a
thousand years of delights on the earth. This position was taken up by a bishop
in Egypt named Nepos, who wrote a book in defense of it, and styled it
"Refutation of the Allegorists." Dionysius being an allegorist,
warmly opposed Nepos in his work "On the Promises." In one of his
works he thus speaks of Nepos: "They produce," says he, "a
certain work of Nepos, upon which they lay great stress, as if he advanced
things that are irrefragable when he asserts that there will be an earthly reign of Christ. In many other respects I
accord with and greatly love Nepos, both on account of his faith and industry,
and his great study in the scriptures; as also for his great attention to
psalmody, by which many are still delighted. I greatly reverence the man also
for the manner in which he has departed this life. But the truth is to be loved and honored before all. It is just,
indeed, that we should applaud and approve whatever is said aright, but it is
also a duty to examine and correct whatever may not appear to be written with
sufficient soundness. If, indeed, he were present, and were advancing his
sentiments orally, it would be sufficient to discuss the subject without
writing, and to convince and
.Page 61
confute
the Opponents by question and answer. But as the work is published, and as it
appears to some, is calculated to convince, and there are some teachers who say that the law and the prophets are of no value, and
who give up following the gospels and who depreciate the epistles of the
apostles, and who at the same time announce the doctrine of this work as a
great and hidden mystery, and who also do not allow that our brethren (the
Allegorists) have any sublime and great conception, either of the glorious and
truly divine appearance of our Lord, nor of our own resurrection, and our being
gathered and assimilated to him, but persuade them to expect what is little and
perishable, and such a state of things as now exists in the kingdom of God; it
becomes necessary for us, also, to reason with our brother Nepos as if he were
present."
It
would seem from this, that while Dionysius, the allegorist, was a specimen of a
modern clergyman, or priest, affirming some good things about truth, while he
was entirely mistaken concerning "the truth," there were, also, other
clergymen who might be designated as "Millennarians." These rightly
believed that Christ will reign upon earth a thousand years with the saints,
and with Jerusalem restored for the capital of his kingdom; but with this truth
they blended errors that nullified it, and which are now constituents of the
clerical orthodoxy of the nineteenth century. They regarded the law and the
prophets as valueless, and thought but little of the epistles of the Apostles.
This is practically characteristic of the clergy and their flocks; and the
consequence is, that they, like the "great Bishop of Alexandria," in
Egypt, and the Millennarians and Allegorists of his time, are incapable of
understanding the apocalyptic expositions of Daniel and the prophets.
Practically, they ignore the scriptures of the prophets and apostles, while
with their lips they bestow upon them "faint praise;" and find it
profitable to maintain the machinery by which they are circulated. This may be
verified by any intelligent believer acquainted with "the churches;"
gross scriptural ignorance being characteristic of them all. No wonder, then,
that though "the sayings of the prophecy of the Apocalypse are not
sealed" - ch. 22:10 - it should be sealed, and therefore unintelligible to
them. The truth of the matter they call "little and perishable;" and
absurdly suppose that the Millennial reality expounded by Chiliasts is expected
to be "such a state of things as now exists in" what they call
"the kingdom of God," that is, in "Christendom." But the
reason of this their folly is, that the things revealed by the Deity are not in
conformity with "the thinking of the flesh." That which the Old Adam
terms grand and sublime, is not truly so. The sublimity and greatness of his
conceptions in relation to "the deep
Page 62.
things
of God," are mere foolishness. Dionysius and his brethren were of 'the
Synagogue of the Satan," "Jezebel and her children," who held
the doctrine of Balaam, and taught "the depths of the Satan;" by
which they were industriously developing the Laodicean Apostasy, which, in the
reign of Constantine the First, became the religion of Satan's Kingdom, and
continues such until this day. The Old Adam's foolishness was, therefore,
especially theirs. Hence, the charge of their Millennarian contemporaries is
perfectly just, that the Allegorists 'have no sublime and great conception
either of the glorious and truly divine appearance of our Lord, nor of our own
resurrection, and of our being gathered, and assimilated to him."
In
proof of how greatly Jezebel's children were puzzled by the Apocalypse within a
hundred and fifty years after its publication -how utterly incapable they were
in any sense "to see it" - I will still quote from "the great
Bishop of Alexandria." "Some, indeed, before us," says he,
"have set aside, and have attempted to refute the whole book, criticizing
every chapter, and pronouncing it without sense, and without reason," that
is, totally opposed to the thinking of the flesh, or to the sense and reason of
minds destitute of the truth. "They say," continues Dionysius,
"it has a false title, for it is not of John. Nay, that it is not even a
revelation, as it is covered with such a dense and thick veil of ignorance,
that not one of the Apostles, and not one of the holy men, or those of the
Church, could be its author." It will not be difficult for one of
"servants of the Deity" to discern to what class of professors these
critics belonged, and the true cause of their denunciation of the Apocalypse.
It condemned them as "evil," as "liars," as false apostles,
as Nikolaitanes, as spurious Jews of the Satan's synagogue, as the children of
Jezebel, and so forth. They had sense and reason enough to recognize themselves
as of the class repudiated under these terms in the apocalyptic epistles. They
were conscious that they "held the doctrine of Balaam," and "the
doctrine of the Nikolaitanes," and hence, their bitter enmity and contempt
for the whole book which exposed them, and all of their class in all ages and
generations, to the reprobation of all truly good and Christian men. They tried
to persuade their contemporaries who professed christianity, that it ought not
to be recognized as canonical: that it was no revelation from the Deity; and
that consequently, pious, God-fearing people should not perplex their minds in
the vain endeavor to understand it. Whatever its author might mean, was
inscrutable, being imbedded "in such a dense and thick veil of
ignorance." No doubt, there was such a veil between its meaning and their
comprehension of it; but the fog was that which beclouded their own brains, and
arose from the vain
Page 63
imaginations
and traditions of their evil hearts. Mankind are prone to evil, and to the
reception of foolishness rather than the truth. This has been characteristic of
all generations since the original transgression in Eden. It was pre-eminently
so of the generations immediately succeeding the delivery of the Apocalypse to
John. The Nikolaitanes and children of Jezebel, whose representatives in our
generation are the "Holy Orders of the Ministry," the Spirituals of Modern
Christendom, at length succeeded in persuading their dupes that they ought not
to trouble themselves with the study of the Apocalypse, for that it was utterly
unintelligible, or could not be seen; and calculated only to dethrone all sense
and reason. The impression they made was deep and lasting. Repudiation of
apocalyptic studies became a principal of "orthodoxy" in all
succeeding generations, until in our own, a man's sanity is suspected if he is
known earnestly to devote himself to the work of unfolding the mystery set
forth, or revealed, in the symbols it contains.
But
they were not content with simply denying the divine authorship of the book.
They proceeded to justify the character assigned them in the Apocalypse by
falsely ascribing it to one Cerinthus; who if he ever existed, is said, like
many in our day, to have held some very absurd opinions in connection with the
Divine truth of Christ's reign on earth. "Cerinthus," say they,
"the founder of the sect of Cerinthians, so called from him, wishing to
have reputable authority for his own fiction, prefixed the title. For this is
the doctrine of Cerinthus, that there will be an earthly reign of Christ."
In this he was perfectly correct. "And," continued they, "as he
was a lover of the body; and altogether sensual in those things which he so
eagerly craved, he dreamed that he would revel in the gratification of the
sensual appetite, i.e. in eating, and
drinking, and marrying." Whether he really held these opinions it is
impossible to tell. His enemies say so; and these enemies have had the ear of
the world to the exclusion of all testimony but their own. To the class
denounced in the Apocalyptic epistles have belonged all the ecclesiastical
historians through whom has come to us the meager and insipid accounts of what
they unscripturally style "the church." All not of the Laodicean
Apostasy they have proscribed and denounced as "heretics;" and where
the; could not procure the suppression of these by force, they have sought to
hold them up to the reprobation and contempt of their contemporaries and
posterity by "saying all manner of evil of them falsely for Christ's
sake," as he foretold they would - Matt. 5:11. I know experimentally that
this is the policy of professors and their spiritual guides of this nineteenth
century generation. They affirm certain
Page
64.
ridiculous
falsehoods, and say I teach them. They do not care to inform themselves of the
truth of the matter, which would be inconvenient, and might not answer their
purpose. So it may have been in the case of Cerinthus. He may not have held the
opinions attributed to him; or he might. But, if even he did, his errors did
not change the truth of the Deity. He has decreed the reign of His king on
Zion, the hill of His holiness, and it will assuredly come to pass, in spite of
all the errors assigned to Cerinthus and others who believe it, concerning the
nature and character of that reign.Cerinthus was perfectly scriptural if he
affirmed that there would be eating and drinking in the kingdom of the Deity.
It is, however, difficult to believe that he taught that there would be
marrying, in view of the saying of Israel's King, that they who attain to the
resurrection and the kingdom "neither marry, nor are given in marriage;
but are as the angels of the Deity." As to eating and drinking, this is as
plainly taught by Christ, who not only ate with his apostles after his own
resurrection, but promised them, saying, "ye shall eat and drink at my
table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel;" and again he said, "I will no more drink of the fruit of the
vine until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of the Deity" -
Luke 22:30; Mark 14:25. The enemies of Cerinthus did not believe this; but
denounced it as sensuality, and in so doing, thought themselves wonderfully
spiritual! They said that to give the eating and drinking "a milder aspect
and expression," he taught that it would be "in festivals and
sacrifices, and the slaying of victims," the sensual appetite of the
redeemed would be gratified. Against this "milder aspect and
expression," they exclaimed as loudly as our own clerical contemporaries
and their disciples; for according to their system of superstition, they can
discern no place in the kingdom, whether on earth or in heaven, for eating and
drinking sacrificially or in any other way. I perceive, plainly, in these
charges brought against Cerinthus the great and rapid progress the apostasy
Paul predicted had made within a short time after the apocalypse was revealed. Nay,
even while he wrote the prediction, the Allegorists were actively engaged in
the work of superseding the real, literal, and true, by the fictitious and
imaginary, which they call the "spiritual," or allegorical, until now
at length, everything is resolved into feeling
and impressions, and the testimony of the Deity by prophets and apostles is
practically ignored. A professor "feels good," and therefore he is
good; he "feels that a thing is true," and therefore it is true; he
"feels that it is false," and therefore it is false! With hearts full
of such enlightened feelings as this; and with heads unfurnished with the
divine testimony, we have the professor of the Page
65
Laodicean
Apostasy who has flourished in all the odor of sanctity, and orthodox contempt
for the reign of Christ on earth, characteristic of the zealots in all
"the times of the Gentiles." In their systems of fleshly pietism they
have no place for the priesthood of the saints; nor for the temple, and
festivals, and sacrifices of Ezekiel's testimony. All is figurative or
allegorical; and nothing real remains but to save souls from eternal torment,
and when the number of the elect is completed, to make a bonfire of terrestrial
creation! Well might it be said of the allegorists, that "they have no
sublime and great conception, either of the glorious and truly divine
appearance of our Lord, nor of the resurrection, and the gathering, and
assimilation to him."
But
to return to Dionysius and the Apocalypse. He could not, it would seem, go as
far as some of his predecessors and contemporaries in a total repudiation of
the book. "For my part," says he, "I would not venture to set
this book aside, as there are many brethren who value it much; but having
formed a conception of its subject as exceeding my capacity, I consider it also
containing a certain concealed and wonderful intimation in each particular. For
though I do not understand, yet I suspect that some deeper sense is enveloped
in the words, and these I do not measure and judge by my private reason; but
allowing more to faith, I have regarded them as too lofty to be comprehended by
me, and those things which I do not understand, I do not reject, but I wonder
the more that I cannot comprehend." This was a candid admission on the
part of Dionysius, that he could
"not see it." He showed a better sense than many in not venturing
to set it aside, because he could not see it. Inability to see it disqualifies
the reader for enlightened criticism. If he were able to see the apocalyptic
scroll, he would discern knowledge and wisdom pervading it, which "no one
in the heaven, nor upon the earth, nor under the earth" could have
originated but the Deity who gave it to Jesus Christ. The proof of the divine
authorship of the book is in this. I would, therefore, advise the reader to
study it that he may be "able to see it" - to understand it.
"Many brethren" in the days of Dionysius "valued it much,"
though he could make nothing of it. They valued it, doubtless, because they
understood it, not that they could have expounded all its details; but keeping
in mind "the gospel of the kingdom," the nature of that kingdom, and
the great mystery of godliness, in the manifestation of the sons of the Deity,
they saw into the general import of
this wonderful book, and secured the blessing promised to him that knows
accurately, and gives heed to its words, and observes narrowly the things it
contains.
Let
us, then, proceed under the enlightened conviction, that
Page 66
though
there is no help to be expected from "the great bishops" of the
Gentiles, babes in Christ may come to see the apocalypse intellectually if they
approach the subject in a teachable spirit, and from a right direction. I
proceed then to remark, that while the fourth chapter introduces us to
"the hour of judgment" - to the epoch when the door had been
violently opened in the heaven, and a throne set up there, the fifth chapter
shows that universal dominion over the earth shall be to him who unrolls the
scroll and looses the seven seals. The consummation of this chapter is coeval
with the end of the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet, the seventh vial, and
the seven thunders. The opening of the door in the heaven never to be closed
again, marks the first minute of the judgment hour; and the ascription of
blessing, honor, glory, and power to the Lamb by every created thing in verse
13, marks the last moment of the same hour in which the wrath of the Deity
against the nations is entirely exhausted. This "hour" is a period of
thirty years, in which the process of loosing, or finishing the loosing of the
seventh seal is being completed. The seven seals are to establish the kingdom
of David's house "for the Aions of the Aions." The chapter does not
describe what is, but prophesies what shall be hereafter. It reveals that the
personage is provided to whom is assigned the honor and glory of accomplishing
the work termed the unrolling the scroll and the loosing of the seven seals;
and no one can mistake him. In verse 12, he is declared by the saints and
angels to be "worthy to receive" whatever is decreed. At this point
it is not possessed; because the power and the glory are in the hands of
"the powers that be," who are hostile to his claims; and "shall
make war with him," to prevent him from obtaining what the "ten
thousand of ten thousands and thousands of thousands" proclaim him worthy
of - Apoc. 17:14. "But he shall overcome them; for he is Lord of lords and
King of kings:
and
they that are with him" in his wars, that is, the saints, "are the
called, and chosen, and faithful" - the 144,000, who follow him
whithersoever he goeth - ch. 14:1-4. The result of this conquest is declared in
verse 13, of the fifth chapter, which testifies, that every creature acquiesces
in his receiving everything of which his brethren the saints and the angels of
the Deity announce him to be worthy. All power, riches, strength, honor, glory,
and blessing become his, and all nations find the blessedness of the gospel
preached to Abraham come upon them, and established for the thousand years. A
most unexpected result to them all; but one looked and longed for by those
represented by the four living ones, and the twenty-four elders; who, both in
their mortal state before resurrection, and as resurrected and prepared for
action, exclaim, "So let it be!"
Page 67
SECTION
2
"And I saw at the right
of Him seated upon the throne a Scroll that had been written within and on the
outside, sealed up with Seven Seals." - Chap. 5.'1
1.
The Scroll
It
is scarcely necessary to remark that the occupant of the throne is the Deity,
likened in chap. 4:3, to a jasper and a sardine stone, emblematic of Spirit
manifested in flesh. That chapter gives no intimation of this flesh having ever
tasted of death; but in the fifth this great fact is brought out in connection
with the scroll, as we shall see hereafter.
On
the right of the manifested Deity was a scroll. It was written within and on
the outside; and was sealed up. This was, doubtless, related to the same
document as that referred to in Dan. 12:4,9 where it is written, "Shut up
the words, and seal the book till the time of the end;" and "the
words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." Daniel was not
informed with how many seals, or if by one only it was sealed up; but 'simply
that it was sealed. It was all the same to him whether it was sealed up with
one seal or many; for a scroll closed and sealed up is unreadable till
unrolled, and the sealing is opened. The catastrophe, or final series of
events, revealed to Daniel belonged "to the time of the end." He was
instructed to look forward to that period, to which pertains the apocalyptic
"hour of judgment," for the termination of the wonders and times
treated of in his book, or scroll. What had been communicated to him was
principally concerning his people and his holy city. He had heard that the
Saints were to be overcome by the Little Horn of the Fourth Beast that has Eyes
and Mouth; and that their subjugation was to continue until the Ancient of Days
came with a cloud of attendants numbered by "a thousand thousands and ten
thousand times ten thousand," when the judgment would sit, and the fourth
beast in body, head and horns should be destroyed by the burning flame of wrath
proceeding from the cherubic throne of Deity. All this he had heard;
nevertheless, there was a mystery closed up and sealed against his scrutiny
that needed explication. What did that Little Horn with his Eyes like a man,
and a mouth speaking great words against the Most High signify? Was the Ancient
of Days by whom they were to be destroyed, Deity or angel; if the former, how
manifested? If
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68
the
latter, who was lie? Who was that Son of Man brought before the Ancient of
Days, to whom universal dominion upon earth is given? How could the conquered
saints take the Kingdom under the whole heaven from the four beasts? These, and
many other questions would suggest themselves to Daniel, which would only put
him to grief, and place him beside the apostle John, who 'shed many tears
because no one was found worthy (and therefore able) to unroll and to read the scroll, nor to see it" ch 5:4. When Daniel saw the vision of his
seventh chapter he said he "was grieved in spirit in the midst of the
body, and the visions of his head troubled him;" and even after the
meaning of what he saw was interpreted, he says his cogitations still troubled
him much, and his countenance was changed. Thus if John and Daniel had been
both in Patmos together studying 'the matter" they would have been
companions in tribulation consequent upon their fruitless investigations, and
endeavors to unclose the words, and to unseal the scroll seen by the prophet in
the first and third of Belshatzar's reign, and in the third of Cyrus the
Persian King. Nor would their grief have been assuaged until this day had the
scroll at the right of Deity manifested in flesh, and occupying the throne,
been withheld. John could have instructed Daniel concerning the Ancient of Days
and the Son of Man; he could have enlarged his views concerning the Saints; and
have given him skill and understanding in the mystery of the gospel preached to
Abraham; but as to the relations of the saints to the then existing government;
the taking out of the way that which hindered the revelation of "The King
who should do according to his own will," and in his empire should honor a
blaspheming god unknown to his pagan predecessors; as to the rise of the ten
horns; the development of the Saracen and Turkish powers; the pouring out of
that determined upon the desolator of the Holy Land and City; the coming of the
Ancient of Days in power; the resurrection; the war of the great day of the
Omnipotent; the co-operation of the Saints; the establishment of the Kingdom;
and so forth; as to all these things John could give Daniel no connected and
intelligible account. They were all written within and on the outside of that
notable scroll on the right of the throne, or place of almighty power. In
vision, or spirit, John looked wistfully upon that scroll, closely rolled up
and exuberantly sealed. Daniel would have looked wistfully at it too; and so
would all the saints, both their contemporaries and ours. And if all this
company could have occupied synchronously with John his position in the vision,
and their feelings could have been simultaneously expressed, on hearing the
question "Who is worthy to unroll the scroll, and to loose its
seals?" unreplied to by a solitary response; there would have been a
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universal
lamentation and shedding of tears abundantly. In saying this, I speak of the
Saints of all ages and generations who are such in reality, and not merely in
pretense. The saints of the Deity, or 'his servants," who are such in deed
and in truth, like John, take a deep interest in "the things of the
spirit," and earnestly desire and diligently endeavor to "know the truth" of all
'matters' the Deity has condescended to reveal. They seek to know the true
import, the real meaning, of them all; and if they do not succeed, it is a
source of much anxiety and restlessness of mind. But saints so called who have
a name like many in the ancient Sardis, "that they live, but are
dead," would have seen the scroll at the right of power, and though they
should have heard with John, "that no one was able in heaven, nor upon the
earth, nor under the earth, to unroll the scroll, nor to see it," would
have been far from joining him in "shedding many tears, because no one was
found worthy to unroll and to read the scroll, nor to see it." Saints of
this sort flourish in overwhelming multitudes in the present time. They might
possibly so far have respected the presence of the apostle as not to have
laughed at his "weakness;" but behind his back, they hesitate not to
laugh to scorn those who are interested in this scroll, and seek to understand,
or see it." They regard such as
hairbrained and frantic fanatics, and exclaim in vast astonishment at their
presumption. To them the scroll is "covered with a dense and thick veil of
ignorance," which only the presumptuous and reckless would essay to lift
or put aside. In holding these sentiments they condemn the weeping of the
apostle. What sense in his shedding many tears because no one could interpret
such a document as they esteem it - a book calculated only to addle or dement
the brains of all who try to understand it? Certainly none. In effect, then,
they condemn the lamentation of the apostle: and prove to a demonstration, that
they are not in fellowship with him; nor, by consequence, "with the
Father, and with his son Jesus Christ," - 1 John 1:3. Hence, the apostle
in the vision does not represent saints of their class. In the apocalyptic
drama he symbolizes no such impious professors. If a multitude of weepers had
been introduced into the scenic representation instead of one tear-shedding
apostle, the apocalypse-despising crowd would have found no standing room among
them. Such profane and scoffing pietists could have no more place there, than
as cherubic eyes in the four Living Ones, when the unrolling of the scroll, and
the unloosing of the seals, will be complete. No, not these, but his own class,
is symbolized or represented by John in the vision of this fifth chapter. He
acts for those in fellowship with the apostles and prophets as these would have
acted had they heard the proclamation of the vision in the time before the
Page
70 .
Lion
of Judah’s tribe was announced as the unroller of the scroll, and looser of the
seals. His dramatic weeping argues, and indeed indicates, "the joy
unspeakable and full of glory" characteristic of his class, the saints, in
their "full assurance of faith and hope" that "all power has
been given to him in heaven and upon earth" to unroll the scroll, and to
loose the seals thereof; and that consequently, there is no throne, dominion, principality,
nor power in the political firmament that can successfully contend against him;
nor kindred, tongue, nation, tribe nor people, that can preserve their
independence of the sovereignty of Judah and Israel's King. In the ratio of the
lamentation is the intensity of the joy by implication. Sensible men do not
"shed many tears" over trifles. Hence, though it is not said that
John was glad with exceeding joy when he heard that one was found who was able
to unroll the scroll, read and see it, it is nevertheless implied, seeing that
he was so movingly affected on the contrary supposition. That scroll,
symbolical of its contents, must certainly have been inestimable which could be
unrolled only by one in all the Universe deemed of worthiness sufficient by the
Lord of heaven and earth. Its denouement,
or unraveling of its subject matter, was to put John and all in fellowship
with him, in possession of the great salvation - of the kingdom promised to
those who are "rich in faith;" hence, to understand this denouement and to know that the Lord
Jesus will carry it through, and establish it so that "it cannot be
moved," would develop the voices of this fifth chapter which are
expressive of loud shouting for joy on the part of all who utter them.
These
things being premised, I proceed to remark that the scroll at the right hand of
power, occupying symbolically the place of Christ's present position, is all
that section of the Apocalypse embraced in the seven seals. It does not contain
the epistles to the seven ecclesias in Asia. In John's day, the subject matter
of these letters was ha cisi, "the
things which are;" but, in our time, they are the things which were; yet is the are and the were connected
as the acorn and the wide-spreading oak. The reader will remember the Spirit's
division of the Apocalypse, or "Revelation of Jesus Anointed which the
Deity gave to him," in chap. 1:19. There John was told to write ha cides, "the things seen;" ha eisi, "the things extant;"
and ha mellei ginesthai, "the
things to be." The Apocalypse, in the largest sense of the word, is the
writing John executed in obedience to this command, and comprehends all these
three classes of things. The things he had seen at the time of the order to
"write," were the things he saw when, in spirit, or vision, he was in
the Lord's Day, the day when He comes in power and great glory, the account of
which is in the first chapter, from the tenth verse
Page.71
to
the eighteenth inclusive. The second class of things, or things which are, were those things charged upon the seven
ecclesias in the epistles contained in the second and third chapters, and
which, instead of being suppressed by the Spirit's reprobation of them, grew
vigorously until they became a great and deadly upas, overshadowing the whole
territory of Daniel's fourth beast dominion, miscalled "Christendom,"
as at this day. Hence John's ha cisi, or
things extant, in the ecclesias named, were the "inside" seeds of
things which afterwards became "THE CHURCH BY LAW ESTABLISHED" - an
establishment consisting of the nauseous sputa ejected from the Spirit's mouth
when the apostasy had attained its Laodicean development at the incipient
loosing of the seventh seal. Its patrons, who by it had their wealth and honor,
styled it "THE HOLY AP'OSTOLIC CATHOLIC CHURCH," and do symbolize it
at this day by a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and
angels crowning her with a crown of twelve stars. The three ecclesiastical
divisions of "Christendom" - Greek, Latin, and Protestant - contend
earnestly for what their champions regard as the honor of this title. Each
section would appropriate it exclusively to itself, but this exclusive
appropriation is still in abeyance, and likely so to be interminably; for, as
they have not been able to settle the controversy in fifteen centuries and a
half, they are not likely so to do in the few years remaining of "the
times of the Gentiles," when the loosing of the seventh seal will be
complete.
But
there were also written in the seven epistles certain predictions of ha mellei ginesthai, "things which
shall be," meta tauta, "after
these things" - the iniquities of the second class of things shall be
consummated. Jezebel would be clothed with the sun and give birth to the
Man-child of Sin; and her children, the Harlots and Abominations of chapter
seventeen, would become rich by her, and develop "the depths of the Satan
as they teach;" but then, it was predicted in what the Spirit said to the
ecclesias, that professors should have "a tribulation ten days;" that
He would "fight against them with the sword of his mouth;" that He
would cast them into a bed . . . "into great tribulation, and kill them
with death;" that He would "come on them as a thief;" that He
would "make them come and worship before the feet of those who keep his
word, and have not denied his name;" and that professors of the Satan's
synagogue - professors not scripturally in Christ, and those who walk after the
flesh - "shall know that he has loved the true believers" whom they
despise; that He would bring "the hour of trial upon the whole
habitable to try them that dwell upon the
See
the frontispiece of a book published by E. Dunigan and Bros., New York. styled The Glorys of Mary". See pg. 72.
PICTURE
ON PAGE 72 NOT CCOPIED BY SCANNER
Page
73
The
book referred to by the author in his footnote on p.71 is no longer available.
However, the illustration above is from the Official
Baltimore (US) Catechism of the Catholic Church. The same picture
representing Mary with the twelve stars circling her head and the crescent moon
under her feet is found also in innumerable Roman Catholic Churches throughout
Europe. According to Kenrick's Egypt
vol.1, p.425, the Egyptian goddess Isis was often represented as standing
on the crescent moon with twelve stars surrounding her head. As the author of Eureka shows, the Apostasy, in the days
of Constantine and afterwards, endeavored to make their beliefs palatable to
pagans by superimposing their superstitions on Christianity.
HPM
earth,"
and that, being "lukewarm," He would "spue them out of his
mouth."
But,
beside these threatenings against professors of christianity pretending to be
apostles, or "successors of apostles," "Jews," and
spiritually "rich and increased in goods, and in need of nothing," as
in all the ages and generations of the Apostasy concurrent with the seventh
seal, as at this day: but who, both "divines" and people, are
apocalyptically denounced as "liars," holding with the teaching and
practices of the Nikolaitanes, which the Spirit hates; as "the Synagogue
of the Satan;" "holding the teaching of Balaam" in
mass-sacrifices to images, and the fornication of a marriage-forbidding
hierarchy; as "the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, teaching
and seduc'ing God's servants to practice abomination; as the Satan;" as
"having the name that they live while really dead;" and as
"wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Besides
the threatenings against these, the apocalyptic epistles abound in promises of
a glorious destiny to those who "overcome." These are described as
those "who cannot bear them who are evil," and who try claimants to
apostolicity and inward Jewship, and in default of scriptural proof reject them
as "liars." They are described as those who "have borne and had
patience, and for the Spirit's name sake have labored and not fainted;" as
rich in faith and faithful unto death; as Antipas, who holds fast the name and
has not denied the faith of the Spirit; as those whose "last works are
more than the first;" as the "few names" in the midst of a
christian community in a dying state, or "ready to die," who have
"not defiled their garments;" as those who have "kept the word
and not denied the name of the Spirit;" and as those who are
"zealous, and hear the Spirit's voice; and hearing, respond to his voice,
and open the door of their mind and affections to his entering in. These are
they who "overcome the wicked one," and the false prophets of the
world, whom the world heareth - 1 John 4:1,4,5;
2:14. They are "born of the Deity," and therefore "overcome
the world" by their faith. They all believe in His promises with an
intelligent faith, and that Jesus is His first-begotten - the Chief of His many
sons - through whom alone the scroll can be unrolled, and the loosing of its
seven seals effected
I
John 5:4,5.
To
these, then, who are the heirs of victory, the epistles to the seven
apocalyptic ecclesias teem with promises of abounding glory. The Spirit
testifies in them that they shall "eat of the wood of life in the midst of
the paradise of Deity;" that a coronal wreath of life shall crown them;
that they shall receive a white pebble with a new name engraved upon it, known
only to the receiver; that they shall have
Page 74 EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE.
dominion
over the nations, and govern them with an iron sceptre; that the imperial and
regal constitution of the world shall break to pieces as the potter's clay
vessels; that those who get the victory over the world shall receive the
Morning Star; that they shall be clothed in white garments, and their names
openly confessed by the Life-imparting Spirit in the presence of his Father and
his angels; that they shall be eternal pillars in the temple of Deity; that the
Quickening Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) shall engrave them with the name
of his Deity, and the name of the city of his Deity, the New Jerusalem, which
descendeth out of the heaven from his Deity, even his new name; and that they
shall sit with him in his throne after the example of what shall obtain in relation
to himself and his Father's throne.
Here,
then, are threatenings and promises - threatenings for spurious professors and
apostates within, and for persecutors
of the saints without; and glorious
promises for those who gain the victory over their own lusts and the seductions
of the world by faith. fliese were the
things to be - the things of the third class which the apocalyptic epistles
affirmed but did not unroll. They
give no explanation concerning the how and the when the vision symbolical of
the Lord's Day, or "the things seen" of John, in chap. 1, and
"the things which shall be," or the threatenings and promises, shall
be developed. A revelation, then, was needed to exhibit the when and the how of
the threatenings and the promises, and this need was amply supplied by the
scroll at the right hand of power, written within and on the outside, and
sealed up with seven seals. It was placed in the vision at the right hand of
power, or, as it is expressed in the text, "at the right of Him seated upon
the throne," to signify that none but the Omnipotent in manifestation was
"able" or powerful enough to unroll it and loose its seals. Gabriel,
whose name, Gabriy'el signifies Mighiy' One of Power, 'who stands in the
presence of Deity," had been employed to give Daniel skill and
understanding in the vision and matter communicated to him in the third year of
Belshatzar (Dan. 8:16; 9:21; Luke 1:19); but Gabriel was not worthy, able, or
powerful enough to give John skill and understanding in the matter of the scroll;
for, says John, "no one was able in the heaven, nor upon the earth, nor
under the earth, to unroll the scroll, nor to see it.
The
book of Daniel is to the Apocalypse as the acorn to the oak. The latter is the
mystery of Daniel's prophecy symbolically revealed. This mystery of things he
ministered he thought much upon, and sought to find out with great diligence,
but without success; for he was informed that the mystery was hidden, and could
not be penetrated until a time appointed.
Page 75 75
As
already intimated, Daniel saw a scroll, as indicated in the phrase "the
words and seal the book," as well as John. He was told that "the
words were closed up and sealed till the time of the end." Hence, these
were to Daniel "a scroll at the right of Him seated upon the throne
written within and on the outside, sealed up with seven seals." That
closed and sealed against Daniel's understanding was the mystery or secret of
the words of the book.
But
one might inquire, If the mystery were to be concealed "till the time of
the end," in what sense can John's apocalyptic scroll and seals be a
revelation of the hidden wisdom of Daniel's book, seeing that John's age was
not "the time of the end"---
a time which is only just now
dawning upon the world? This we consider a very pertinent inquiry. In answer,
the reader may be reminded, that the revelation to John was symbolical. He did
not see the actual, but only the acted or dramatized events he describes. What
he saw was a pictorial representation, as it were - a speaking hieroglyphic
signifying to his understanding things which in the time of the end shall all
have become accomplished facts, so that, in this end "the vision shall
speak, and not lie" - Hab. 2:3. The Apocalypse in its word-painting is the
unrolling to the understanding of the servants of the Deity the series of
events that should be successively unfolded, and which in their time of the end
consummation should manifest as an accomplished result "THE END OF THE
MATTER" - Dan. 7:28.
The
scroll had to be unrolled and its seals loosed before the vision it contained
could be read and perceived, or intelligibly comprehended, when it should
"speak at the end." The speaking at the end truthfully, is what is
styled in modern phrase the denouement, a
word signifying the discovery of the plot, the unravelling or issue of the
matter, termed in Daniel "the end of the matter." This denouement was revealed to him; but the
unfolding of the particular series and succession of events thereunto leading,
was not made known to him. He was informed in general terms, that the powers of
the fourth beast dominion should make war upon and prevail against the saints
until the Ancient of Days should come; and that then the saints should becorne
a power mighty enough to destroy the fourth-beast system of powers; and to set
up the kingdom of Deity. In the establishment of which as the great political
fact of the age and generation, the denouement
of God's dealings with the nations all the time of their ascendancy over
the saints, would be manifested. He was instructed that "the end of the
matter" was to be a crisis elaborated providentially from antecedents
evolved in the history of the fourth-beast nationalities; but what was the
particular vein to be worked out in its several lodes to conduct to
Page
76 EXPOSITION OF THE
APOCALYPSE.
the
main and terminable results, he did not
"see." In dramatical representation, the spectators behold the
unrolling of the author's scroll, as the acting is in progress; but they have
to wait till the end of the piece, the time of the end, for the dramatist's
conception to "speak and not lie." Unless they have read the play, or
seen it acted before, they have to "wait for the end of the matter,"
ere they can tell how the matter will come out, or what the ingenious dramatist
designed should be the end of the whole, or the issue of the plot. It was thus
with Daniel and John. The end of the matter had been revealed to them both.
They had read the denouement of the
drama to result at the end from all its shifting scenes; but they had never
seen nor read the play. The acting had
not been revealed to them. In Daniel's time the stage had not been prepared,
nor the dramatis personae, the
company of performers, collected and arranged in their several parts for the performance
of the tragedy to be played. There was no fourth-beast dominion then; nor any
saints who had "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb" - Rev. 7:14 - to be prevailed against thereby; and without these
important parties in the premises, the actual tragedy could not begin; nor
could a representation or rehearsal of the performance have come with any
enlightening effect upon Daniel's mind, being ignorant as he was of the mystery
afterwards revealed in the apostolic ministration of "the word."
But
by the time that John had come to be an exile in Patmos, all this was changed.
Daniel's situation was no longer that of John and his brethren. The
fourth-beast dominion was now upon the world's stage; and, as the Little Horn, not
then as yet decorated with 'Eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking
great things," had "taken away the Daily, and had cast down the place
of its sanctuary," and practised and prospered. Messiah the prince, though
faultless, had been "cut off' by
this horn; and by the teaching concerning his kingdom and name, a people
composed of Israelites and Gentiles according to the flesh, had been developed
as the seed of the great father of the faithful and "friend of God,"
by adoption through Jesus as the prince; and stood confessed of heaven before
"the inhabiters of the earth and sea"-----the whole habitable - as
"THE ISRAEL OF GOD."
In
these two hostile communities exist all the elements to be afterwards developed
into the parties of the play. The Israel of God on the one side, and the Fourth
Beast, on the other, contained the germs of the conflicting good and evil of
the ages and generations from John's day to the giving of "the kingdom,
and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, under all of the heavens to the
people of the saints of the Most High Ones, whose kingdom is the kingdom of
Olahm (the hidden
77
EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE.
Page
77
period),
and all dominions shall serve and obey him;" which is "the end of the
matter." While the apocalyptical tragedy was being rehearsed before John
in Patmos, God's Israel was already constituted of "two manner of
people" - they who walked after the flesh; and they who walked after the
spirit, which is the truth. Out of the former were afterwards developed the
worshippers of demons and of "idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and
stone, and of wood" - Rev .9:20: also, "the Mouth speaking great
things and blasphemies - 13:5; the
image of the beast; the drunken woman, and all the daughters of her prostitution,
and abominations of the earth" - Rev. 17:1-5.
These all are the fruit of the Mystery of Iniquity that was at work in the
mystical body of Christ, in the time of Paul and John. The apostolical epistles
are full of protest against its insidious and corrupt working, which they
clearly saw would "eat as doth a gangrene;" and therefore earnestly
warned all who would be approved of God to have nothing to do with those who
favored it - 2 Tim. 2:15-18; 2 John 10.
On
the other hand, from the Israel of God who walked in the truth were developed
in after ages and generations, "the souls under the altar slain for the
word of God" - ch. 6:9; "the servants of the Deity sealed in their
foreheads;" the 144,000, or "holy nation," (1 Pet. 2:9) the
white-robed palm bearers - ch. 7; the temple of the Deity, the altar
worshippers, and the holy city - ch. 11:1-2; the four and twenty elders, and
the four living ones; the fugitive woman and the remnant of her seed - ch.
12:14,17; God's name and tabernacle, and them that dwell in the heaven - the
saints - ch. 13:6,7; the redeemed from the earth, the virgins, the first-fruits
unto the Deity and the Lamb, faultless before the throne - ch. 14:1-5; them who
had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over the number
of his name, having the harps of Deity - ch. 15:2; the kings of the east, who watch and keep their garments -
ch. 16:12,15; the called, and chosen and faithful with the Lamb in his wars -
ch. 17:14; the prophets and saints slain -ch. 18:24; the Lamb's wife arrayed in
righteousness; and the squadrons of his power - ch. 19:7,8,14; them to whom
judgment is given, the beheaded souls, who worshipped not the beast, nor his
image, and who reign with Christ as the priests of Deity for a thousand years;
the beloved city - ch. 20:4,6,9; the holy city, New Jerusalem, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband, the municipal aggregate of all written in the
Lamb's book of life - ch. 21:2,27; whose foreheads are enstamped with the name
of Deity and the Lamb - ch. 22:4. These all constitute "the Israel of the
Deity" upon whom Paul invoked "peace and mercy" - Gal. 6:16; and
for whose special information the apocalypse was rehearsed to John in Patmos;
and who were, and are
Page 78 EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE.
yet
to enact a most conspicuous part in its public exhibition upon the platform of
the habitable dominated temporarily by the fourth-beast system of powers, so
dreadful and terrible to Daniel's sight
Dan.7:7
As
already remarked above, the Israel of God and this Fourth Beast Dominion
contained of old all the germs of the good and evil which have mingled in
devouring conflict for the past eighteen hundred years; and which will continue
occurrent till the victory which shall culminate in the blessing of all nations
in Abraham and his seed. We have traced the germinal development of the 'two
manner of people" through the tragedy rehearsed to John. By examining the
testimonies cited above, the reader will see how they diverged into an
"enmity" that admits of no mitigation or compromise; but which
apocalyptically results in the utter and final extermination of the Laodicean
Apostasy from among the nations of the Fourth Beast where alone it has taken
root. The reader will also see from the same testimonies that the apostasy
generated in and evolved from the mystical body of Christ, or God's Israel, is
found in alliance with the "dreadful, terrible, and exceedingly
strong" dominion of "the whole habitable," against "the
remnant who keep the commandments of the Deity and have the testimony of Jesus
Anointed;" and that the fate of the one is that also of the other - the
civil, military, and ecclesiastical constitution and institutions of
"Christendom," which is the fourth-beast organization come to
remediless perdition, as the result of the "judgment given to the saints.
In
John's day, then, this Fourth Beast was in the germinal phase of its
development, Daniel saw it with many horns upon it; but neither he nor John
were contemporary with them. The beast had arisen out of the Great Sea
countries, and John was living under the dominion of its Sixth Head - ch. 17:
10; that is, under the rule of Rome Imperial. The beast had not then acquired
horns; and it had not then become acquainted with that "god whom his
fathers knew not ... that strange god" who was afterwards to be
"acknowledged" by the Emperors, and by them "increased with
glory" - Dan. 11:38,39. This "god" had not appeared on the Roman
Habitable then. John had no personal acquaintance with him; but in the
apocalyptic rehearsal of what was in after ages to be publicly exhibited before
the concourse of nations, he saw that he would appear and figure upon the
blood-stained arena as the Image of the Beast - an image resulting from a
coalition of the Laodicean Apostasy with the Roman State.
In
the apocalyptic rehearsal, then, John saw this pagan dominion under which he
lived developed into the Man of Sin-Power. He beheld
Page 79 79
its
birth coeval with a great war in the heaven of the Fourth Beast -ch. 12:5,7. He saw the development of the
Ten Horns as the result of the Fourth Beast Dragon being compelled to yield a
portion of his power, his throne, and great authority to certain incomers upon
the habitable, who divided with the imperials the sovereignty of the earth
-
ch. 13:1-4. He saw these new powers of the earth in alliance with a blasphemous
power, under whose inspiration they would make war upon the saints, and
overcome them. He saw, also, this persecuting power acquire great consistence,
and become imperial. Daniel's "Little Horn with Eyes and Mouth" rose
up before him in the form of a beast coming out of the earth, having two horns
as of a lamb, and speaking as a dragon. He saw the horn and mouth in this
beast, and "the Eyes" in the image which the civil and military power
would cause the people to worship upon pain of death - ch. 13. He saw in this
the Man of Sin-Power, begotten and born in previous centuries, developing into
a "dreadful and terrible" tyranny, that would make the times perilous
for the saints, and for all who, from any cause, would not do it homage. He
perceived, also, that it would have the ascendancy for a long time; and that it
would do after its will for forty-two months of years. This long period he knew
would reach to the coming of the Ancient of Days, and that the Fourth Beast
dominion would then be in its full and final manifestation. The Man of
Sin-Power would then be in full fruition, and in its final form. It was
rehearsed to Daniel in this form with other three dominions; and was afterwards
apocalyptically rehearsed to John as a scarlet colored beast with eight heads,
bearing as its rider a drunken prostitute. He saw in this the Man of Sin Pdwer
in full maturity; and ready to contend with the Ancient of Days and his
followers, "the called, chosen, and faithful," for the indefinite
perpetuation of the Fourth Beast dominion "over all kindreds, and tongues,
and nations" - ch. 17 and 13:7. But "the end of the matter"
divinely purposed required the victory of the Woman's Seed; and that the saints
should possess "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom
under all of the heavens." This being the predetermination of the Deity,
when the apocalyptic rehearsal had brought out the Sin-Power to the full, its
judgment was forthwith represented to John as immediately consequent upon the
manifestation of a great heaven descended angel power upon earth. He saw that
the judgment of the saints would fall with primary and especial violence upon
the ecclesiastical element of the Fourth Beast - ch. 18. Babylon the Great
being thus abolished, he saw the civil power that had upheld her, and had
caused all nations to bow their necks to her priestly yoke, subjected to
relentless and exterminating war; the result of which was the total
Page 80
abolition
of the Church and State of the Fourth Beast dominion. Consequent upon this, the
Beast of the Sea, the Beast of the Earth, the Image of the Beast, and the False
Prophet, the head thereof, are no longer found playing any part in the public
affairs of the world. The all-conquering saints and the Dragon alone remain.
John saw the Dragon chained in the bottomless profound. There were no binding
of the others. They were destroyed; but not so the Dragon. This is shut up and
imprisoned for a thousand years, and afterwards released preparatory to his
destruction then. Identical with this was the consummation represented to
Daniel in ch. 7:11,12. There the Fourth Beast body politic is totally
destroyed, while the lion, bear, and leopard nationalities are deprived of sovereignty
by the saints, or bound for a season and a time, during which long period there
is no power on earth to dispute its absolute possession by the SON OF MAN - Jesus and his brethren. More than this
was not deponed to Daniel. He was informed, indeed, that the saints should
possess the kingdom ad-ahlmah, wead ahlam
ahlmaiyah "during the hidden
period, even for a hidden period of the hidden periods:" but what was to
transpire in regard to the suppressed dominion of the lion, bear, and leopard,
after the expiration of the "period of the periods," he did not see.
It was reserved for the apocalyptic rehearsal to inform the servants of the
Deity, that the lion, bear, and leopard dominion, should be "loosed a little season '~ after
the expiry of the season and time period of their subjection to the saints; and
should then renew their conflict with them, and so bring upon themselves swift
and irremediable, and final destruction. "The end of the matter" with
Daniel was the victorious establishment of the Millennial Kingdom of the
Saints. Beyond this his vision did not penetrate. He knew nothing of the Son's
delivering up the kingdom to the Father as the result of a crisis culminating
in the change of its constitution, the abolition of mediatorship, and the supercession
of flesh and blood nature by spirit; so that all the dwellers upon earth shall
be ho Theos ta panta en pasin, the Deity
the all things in all - DEITY MANIFESTED IN FLESH - of which the glorified
and anointed Jesus is now the type. This is the end of the matter rehearsed
before John - the apocalyptic denouement of
the divine purpose conceived by the Allwise Intelligence before the foundation
of the world.
2. The Writing Within and on the Outside
The
scroll, then, is representative of the things rehearsed before John - the
things which were to be transacted by the performers
Page
81
indicated
in our previous sectional remarks in the public audience of the world, until
the establishment of the kingdom promised to the poor, who may be found rich in
faith, and deemed worthy to possess it. It was "written within and on the
outside." This was not stated without meaning. We have seen that it has
reference to two general classes of actors in the drama; to those within the
temple, and to those of the court without - ch. 11:2. "We were troubled on
every side," saith Paul; "without
were fightings, within were
fears" - 2 Cor. 7:5. The outsiders are those who make war upon and
persecute the saints, such as the beasts, the image of the beast, dragon, and
so forth. The things of the scroll written concerning these, were the things
written on the outside; while those written on the inside, are the things
written about the remnant of the woman's seed, the 144,000, the white robed
palm bearers, the witnesses, the victorious harpists of the Deity, the Lamb's
wife, his followers in the war of the great day of Almighty Power, and so
forth. So long as the scroll was rolled up, and the seals not loosed, what was
written without and within would be unreadable, and unseen. Hence the unrolling
of the scroll, and the loosing the seals, were indispensable to a practical
knowledge of its contents. Suffice it then to say in the absence of a present
acquaintance with their details, that whatever the writing within may be, it
could only be lamentation and woe on the outside; inasmuch as those who are
"without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and
idolaters, and whosoever loveth and invents a lie" ch. 22:15. Such "in no wise enter
into," or within "the city;" for no one that defiles is
permitted to come in there. As it is written, "there shall in no wise
enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or inventeth a lie: save they who have been written in the Lamb's roll of life"
- ch. 21:27. These only will be found therein; and to them only do the good
things written within the scroll belong.
The
things written on the outside pertain to the "dogs," against whom
Paul cautioned those within, saying, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision" - Phil. 3:2. These were dogs who had got
into the sheepfold unawares, and passed themselves off for sheep by a sheeplike
demeanor. They were nothing but dogs, however, in the clothing of sheep. They
were very pious; so much so, that in appearance they surpassed the sheep. They
were righteous overmuch, and thereby destroyed themselves - Ecc. 7:16. They
were "evil workers" under pious pretenses, who seduced the faithful
from "the simplicity which is in Christ," teaching for doctrine the
traditions which in after years intoxicated all the nations of the Fourth Beast
dominion.
These
"dogs" without are commonly
styled "the Fathers" by those
Page 82
who
are without. These, in the estimation of the Gentiles of "the court which is without the
temple," are of higher authority in all ecclesiastical or spiritual
questions and articles of faith" than all the prophets and apostles, or
Jesus Christ himself. The Fathers of the Greek and Latin Christendom" are
the foundation upon which it is built for a habitation of the Satan, through
the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. The spirituals of "the court of the Gentiles without the
temple," in all "the
times" allotted to the Gentiles to "tread under foot the Holy
City," are the living incarnations, in all the ages and generations of
those times, of the soul-destroying principles and practises of "the concision" - loved and
invented by the Nikolaitanes, Balaamites, children of Jezebel, and the Satan -
the Fathers of the Laodicean Apostasy. The priestly and ministerial
incarnations of the principles of these Fathers in our day are
":LEGION." They are blind leaders of the blind into the perdition
that is yawning to engulf the Man of Sin-power and all his agents. Their
admirers designate them as "reverend divines," "ambassadors of
Jesus Christ," "successors of the apostles," ' "ministers
of the gospel," called and sent of God, as Aaron was, to preach and administer
ordinances, "holy men of God," clergy, or God's lot, "holy
orders," and so forth. They are the spiritual guides of the people in all
the ways, the broad ways, of the court without the temple of God." They
are the learned and pious expositors of the traditions sanctioned by the
innumerable 'names and denominations," styled apocalyptically 'names of
blasphemy," of which the scarlet-colored beast of the 'court without"
is declared to be 'full" - ch. 17:3. These "dogs without" are
they who "are of the world, who
therefore speak of the world, and whom the world consequently hears." By
this broad fact, patent to all who understand the truth, all apocalyptic
"dogs" may be discerned, and the spirit by which they are inspired
perceived - I John 4:1-6. They are, as the prophet said of the watchmen of
Israel, "blind; they are all ignorant (of the truth); they are all dumb
dogs, they cannot bark; dreamy, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, greedy dogs
which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand;
they all look to their own way (or sect), every one for his gain to his
quarter" - Isa. 56:10,11. "They are shepherds that cannot
understand," or "come to the knowledge of the truth" - 2 Tim.
3:7. They can understand, in some sort, the school divinity it is their
business to grind for those who go "wondering after" them, and by
whom they have their wealth; but to understand the gospel of the kingdom of
Deity, and of the name of Jesus Christ, is too high for them, they cannot
attain to it. Let any man, intelligent in the gospel, the preaching concerning
Jesus, the revelation of the mystery
Page
83
and
its fellowship, as set forth by the apostles (Rom. 16:25,26; Eph. 3:9), take in
hand a Greek priest, a Papist sin-pardoner, a Protestant State Church parson,
or a Dissenting minister of any of the sects of "the court without the
temple," and try his best to exorcise him of his Gentilism, and to
substitute in his understanding "the truth as it is in Jesus," and he
will find experimentally, that they are all shepherds that cannot understand.
With much care the truth was communicated to their predecessors of the
apostolic age, who received it, but not in the love of it that they might be
saved. They held it in unrighteousness, having the form of godliness, but
denying its power. For this cause, God, as Paul threatened, sent upon them
strong delusion that they should believe the lie they had invented and to this
day so dearly love - 2 Thess. 2:10-12. This "lie" is the matter of
the pharmakeia, or poisoning by which
all nations have been deceived - ch. 18:23. Its effect is to delude strongly
all that swallow it, so that it is hardly possible for the truth to enter in.
Apocalyptically,
"the dogs without" who administer this poison to the people are
styled in the common version "sorcerers," i.e. pharmakoi, poisoners. They poison the people with their
soul-medicines; and so having bewitched them, make merchandise of them from the
cradle to the grave. It is evident from Acts 13:6, that a sorcerer is a false
prophet or teacher. All, therefore who do not teach the truth are scripturally
designated "sorcerers," poisoners, or false prophets, and are classed
with the "filthy" and the "unjust," and are obnoxious to
all the judgments written upon the scroll on the outside. It was for them,
"those men who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads," that
the scorpion-torment and the woe that followed were prepared. These judgments
overwhelmed them with calamity, and reduced them to the basest servitude under
which they groan until this day. Nevertheless, the rest of their class, upon
which the ruin did not come, "repented not of their murders, nor of their
sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts" Rev. 9. From the
Chief Sorcerer in Rome to the meanest poisoner among the western nations, this
unrepentant state of mind is their characteristic. They still cling tenaciously
to their superstitions, and are as murderously disposed towards all that oppose
them as of old. On the side of the oppressor is power; and, wherever that power
is, there are the priests, clergy, and ministers of the apostasy to be found
sanctifying tyranny, and dividing with the plunderer the gains of extortion and
the profits accruing from popular ignorance and folly. Because as murderers,
they have shed the blood of saints and prophets; blood has been given them to
drink; they have been scorched with fire and have been made to gnaw their
tongues with pain – Rev
Page 84.
16:6,8,10.
Yet "they repented not of their deeds." The judgments that have been
poured out upon them, and which have ensanguined the page of history to this
present, have failed to bring them to repentance. The things written on the
outside of the scroll speak only of the fullness of wrath for such. As they
will not repent, utter destruction is. written against them in their being made
to "drink of the wine of the wrath of Deity, which is poured out without
mixture into the cup of his indignation," and in being "tormented
with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence
of the Lamb" - Rev. 14:10. When this consummation shall have been
developed, the saints' war, which pertains to the great and dreadful day of
Yahweh (Rev. 16:14; Joel 2:31) will have expended itself in the conquest of the
Ten Horns, or "kingdoms of the world" (ch. 11:15; 17:14), the utter
and fiery consumption of the ecclesiastical system of the Greco-Latin habitable
(ch. 18:4-8), the extinction of the beast and false prophet power in the lake
of fire, and the binding of the Dragon in the bottomless abyss. These results
belong to the things written on the outside of the scroll, and were a rehearsal
before John of the finishing of the mystery of the Deity as he had already
declared the glad tidings to his servants the prophets - ch. 10:7. All orders
in the states and "churches" of the world, symbolized by the fourth
beast of Daniel, will then have been judicially abolished, and the spiritual
and temporal destroyers of the people will have been themselves retributively
destroyed - ch. 11:18. There will then be no more any priests, parsons, or
preachers, ministering to the ignorance and superstition and sensuality of the
multitude and their own especial gain and glorification. The influence of these
"sorcerers" over the public conscience will have been reduced to
zero. The blasphemous names and denominations which fill the eight-headed
scarlet-colored beast will have been dissipated, and mankind will have at
length attained to that unity of faith and practice so amply foretold in the
writings of the holy prophets. Then, when the clergy and ministers of the
Laodicean Apostasy shall have been thrust out of the way (for they, as upheld
by the civil power and ignorance of their devotees, are the Babylonian
hindrance to the Millennium), the denouement
of the things written on the outside of the scroll will stand out in bold
relief before all nations, which will then have learned obedience to God and
his saints by the things they shall have suffered; and they will say
-"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!" - Apoc. 5:13
And
then, in the language of Apoc. 5:14, the victorious "kings of the
east," standing upon the sea of glass no longer mingled with fire (ch.
15:2), shall joyously approbate the benediction, and proclaim the loud and
mighty apocalyptic AMEN! So let it be for the thousand years, "until he
has put all enemies under his feet" - 1 Cor. 15:25. Then will the royal priesthood" of the heavens, being
at that time in those heavenlies (1 Pet. 2:9; Matt. 5:12), rejoice with the
subject nations, upon whom the blessing of Abraham will have come, with loud
acclamation, saying, 'We give thee thanks, 0 Yahweh Ail-Shaddai, the Being, and
the Was, and the Being Come, because thou takest to thee thy great power, and
reignest" - ch. 11:17. 'Great and marvellous are thy works, Yahweh
Ail-Shaddai; just and true thy ways, thou King of Saints. Who shall not fear
thee, 0 Yahweh, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations
shall come and do homage before thee: for thy judgments are made manifest"
- ch. 15:3,4. ~Hallelu-Yah, salvation, and glory, and honor, and power unto
Yahweh our Elohim; for true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged
the Great Harlot, which corrupted the earth with her prostitution, and hath
avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. Hallelu Yah! Amen! Hallelu-Yah!
Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and
great. Hallelu-Yah! for Yahweh Elohim omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and
rejoice, and give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his
wife hath made herself ready" - ch. 19:1-7.
Such
was the end of the matter written within the scroll, and rehearsed before John
as inaugurative of the reign of the Great and Holy City, New Jerusalem, over
the healed nations for a thousand years - ch. 20:1-6; 21:2,10,24; 22:2 - in all
which the world is possessed by the city, the saint-city, the Royal and
Priestly Municipality of Deity; and all nations are blessed with faithful
Abraham and his seed
I
Cor. 3:21,22; Gal. 3:9.
3. Sealed up with Seven Seals
The
words of the scroll rehearsed to Daniel, were closed up and sealed;" and
the scroll rehearsed before John was 'sealed up with seven seals." To seal
up a scroll was to "close" it; but with how many seals it was closed
up, Daniel was not informed. This secret concealed from the greatly beloved" Daniel, was revealed to
the "beloved disciple," the exile of Patmos.
The
allusions and references to seals and sealing are very frequent in the
scriptures. We need not. however, do more here than to direct
Page 86 EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE.
attention
to instances in which a book or scroll sealed, is a volume whose contents are
hidden so long as sealed. In Isa. 29:10 is a remarkable instance of this. The
prophet had a vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem, but it was to the Jews as
a scroll sealed, and therefore while so, unreadable so as to be understood.
'The vision of all," says the Spirit in Isaiah, "is become unto you
as a scroll that is sealed, which one delivers to him that is learned, saying,
Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed." The
books of the ancients were not like our books in form or material. They were
rolls of papyrus, parchment, or other flexible substance, of various lengths.
Zechariah's roll was twenty cubits long by ten broad; and was written 'on this
side" and "on that side," with the curse of consuming judgments
- Ch. 5:1-4. While rolled up they were sometimes fastened by sticking the edges
of certain turns of the roll together; or by tying the same, and appending a
seal, or seals, to the ligature. Hence, to read such a scroll it would be
necessary to unloose the seals, in their order when so much only of the scroll
could be read as extended from the first to the second tying or sticking; then
from the second to the third; afterwards, from the third to the fourth; then
from the fourth to the fifth; after this, from the fifth to the sixth; and
lastly from the sixth to the seventh: and when this was untied, the whole
scroll, if there were no more stickings or tyings, could be fully extended. and
read from beginning to end.
Now
the written spaces, or intervals, from one hastening of the scroll to another,
were called seals, or closures. To read them the closures must be loosed,
otherwise the contents of the scroll would be forever concealed. They could no
more be discerned, or seen, while in the sealed state, than our modern books
could be read so long as locked by one, two, or more clasps. Seals, then, being
closures, they become symbolical of secrecy. This appears from Apoc. 10:4,
where John is commanded to "seal up those things which the seven thunders
uttered, and write them noL" The
not writing them, which John was about to do before the command was given, was
to keep what he had heard to himself, so that no one else might know what was
spoken -but the class he represented when they and he, as "sons of
thunder" should execute the utterances; and this concealment of the mystery
of the seven thunders was the sealing of them up. Hence, the unsealing of them
will consist in their actual development without previous rehearsal to any but
John.
The
scroll that John saw at the right hand of Power was sealed, or closed up with
seven seals or closures. This signified that there must be seven unloosings
enacted before the mystery contained in and on the
Page 87
outside
of the Scroll of the Divine purpose, could be all performed upon the stage of
the "whole habitable" in the sight of all nations.
The
apocalyptic drama in being visually rehearsed
before John has been verbally rehearsed
to us; for the rehearsal he witnessed, he has recorded for the information of
the rest of his brethren in all after ages; or, that is to say, until judgment
shall be given to them at the appearing of the Ancient of Days. The apostle's
brethren may therefore see from a perusal of the written rehearsal, that the
seven seals represent seven parts of the
great drama, consecutively developed, and issuing in the establishment of
their dominion over all the nations of the earth.
In
the apocalyptic drama prefigured in the rehearsal before us, however, these
parts are unequally distributed. They pertain to three grand divisions of the
performance, which are defined by the nature of the situation. Thus, it is
obvious, that the kingdom promised to the saints could not be established so
long as the Man of Sin Power were undeveloped; and, secondly, that the Man of
Sin Power could not be manifested upon the scene of the fourth beast habitable
so long as the constitution of this beast-dominion continued pagan. The former
necessity of the situation is thus expressed by Paul: "He that now hinders
will hinder until he be taken out of the way; and then shall the Lawless One be
revealed." When Paul wrote these words the Power that hindered the
manifestation of the Lawless One he had described in a previous verse, and whom
he styles "the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition," was the same power
that exiled John to Patmos - the Pagan Roman. It was necessary that the Pagan
Roman power should be "taken out of the way." This was an important
element in the drama to be performed. But how was it to be accomplished? The
answer is: By the culminative force of the events developing in the course of,
and culminating in the full exhaustion of, the things written within and on the
outside of the first six seals. This is the first
division of the apocalyptic scroll; a six act tragedy, resulting in the
fall of paganism, and the enthronement of the LAODICEAN APOSTASY, called by its
devotees, "the Holy Catholic Church," as the religion of the Roman
state.
Now,
Paul teaches in 2 Thess. 2 that the Man of Sin-power to be developed after the
taking out of the way of the pagan Roman, should continue till the time for its
consumption and utter destruction by the glorious manifestation of the YAHWEH
NAME - "whom the Lord shall consume," saith he, "with the spirit
of his mouth, and shall destroy by the manifestation of his presence." The
perdition of this son of the woman (ch. 12:5),
called, therefore, "the Son of Perdition," and the appearing of
the Son of Man are events of the same epoch. All the
Page 88
.
interval,
then, between the taking away of the pagan constitution of the Roman State and the
destroying of the Man of Sin-power, is occupied by the development of the
latter from its birth to its perdition by the saints. This consummation is the
grand issue of the finished performance of the second and third divisions of the seven sealed scroll. The seventh
seal is equivalent to these divisions. It opens at the end of the sixth seal,
and extends its representations to the end of the Seventh Vial when the wrath
of Deity against the Laodicean Apostasy is filled up by its utter and complete
destruction, and the victory of the saints over all their enemies - ch. 15:1-4.
But
while this three-fold division of the scroll is that into which it is resolved
by the necessity indicated by Daniel and Paul, the roll is nevertheless the
subject of minor subdivisions resulting from considerations affecting the
parties concerned in the development of the Man of Sin-power, their apostasy
from the truth, their warfare against the saints, and their overthrow by the
Ancient of Days in "the hour of judgment." These are subdivisions of
the second and third general divisions, or Seventh Seal. This exhibits the
whole performance from its opening, A.D. 324, until the judgment given to the
saints shall have been completely executed upon their enemies. The Seventh Seal
ends with the total and complete abolition of the Sin-powers represented by
Nebuchadnezzar's image, Daniel's Four Beasts, and the Little Horn of the Goat,
or Absolute King; and the Stone-power that smites them becoming a great
mountain dominion, and filling the whole earth. Hence, although the seventh
seal had been opened it has not yet been entirely unrolled so as to be read
historically. When the Seventh Seal prophecy shall be all fulfilled, it will be
said, "Behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest;" for then
the spirit of Yahweh Elohim, apocalyptically styled, "the Seven Spirits of
Deity burning before the throne," will have been quieted in all countries
of the earth. The mission of the Christ personal and mystical will have been fully
accomplished. The tribes of Judah will have been raised up, the desolations of
Israel will have been restored; the nations will have been enlightened; and
Yahweh's salvation developed to the cnds of the earth - Isa. 49:6.
But
before this consummation so devoutly to be wished, there were to intervene many
centuries, and generations of men "believing a lie," with all the
deceivableness of unrighteousness, in which they would take great delight.
History teaches us of this generation, that over fifteen hundred years have elapsed
since the opening of the seventh seal. In all this time the arena of the seal
has been the habitable of two belligerents - "them that perish;" and
the saints; upon the
Page 89
former class, "a strong delusion"
came from God, that they might believe a lie and be damned, as a just
punishment for not believing the truth, and taking pleasure in unrighteousness.
This class began to show itself in the days of the apostles; and, as we have
seen in our exposition of the apocalyptic epistles, acquired the position of
CLERGY, or, "Lords over the
Heritages" - katakurieuontes ton kleron; shepherds of the flock who
had become unfaithful ministers of the word, and seducers, and wholesale
subverters of households for filthy lucre's sake. These had not only acquired
ascendancy over the heritages of the Deity, "which he had purchased with
his own blood," not sparing them, but rending them as grievous wolves; but
they had become before the opening of the seventh seal, a formidable political
antagonism to the Roman government. They were political christians who had the
form of a godliness opposed to the paganism of the state, but not the power of
that godliness originally delivered to the saints by the apostles. They were
the Radicals, Democrats and Dissenters of the time, cordially hating, and being
hated of the governing classes who possessed and sought to retain power and
official spoil. These anti-pagan politicians assumed to be "THE HOLY
APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC
CHURCH;"
and were prepared, when a leader should be found ambitious and daring enough,
to make war upon the government of Caesar, and to dispute with him the
sovereignty of the world. In the beginning of the fourth century the crisis
came, and with it the leader they required. Under the leadership of Constantine,
whom they styled "The Great," they fought, and conquered the power
which from the time of the apostles had been pouring out the blood of their
"fellow-servants and brethren," good and bad; who all passed current
as "Christians" with their pagan accuser, though differing widely
among themselves.
In
the beginning of the fourth century, the Roman Earth was full of "Names
and Denominations of Christians," inspired with very bitter feelings
against each other; but united in hatred of "THE ACCUSER," who
harassed them all with continual persecution to imprisonment, confiscation and
death. These constituted in the aggregate the Laodicean Apostasy - an e pluribus unum as heterogeneous and
motley as this "christian" nation in congress, when, before the war,
it appointed an unbelieving Jew to lead it in its prayers to God.
But
apart from this Holy Apostolic Laodicean Catholic Apostasy, there was a
community, comparatively small, that hated the deeds and doctrines of these
Nikolaitanes and children of the woman Jezebel. It repudiated "the depths
of the Satan as they taught;" and with "a little strength," kept
the word of the Spirit, and did not deny his name. This community of faithful
ones was preserved from the hour of temptation
Page 90 .
which
came upon the whole habitable to try them. These who stood aloof from the
Apostasy, protested alike against "Catholics," Jews and Pagans. They
were zealous for "the faith once for all delivered to the saints,"
and contended earnestly for it, both against their own "fellow-servants"
and nominal "brethren," who were fraternizing with the liberal
non-professing world, and conspiring with them against the government; and
against Pagan and Jewish clergies and their blasphemous and profane traditions
with which they 'destroyed the earth." This Philadelphian community was in
all things opposed to the Laodicean. Its members "walked after the
Spirit," or the truth; and through that spirit mortified the deeds of the
body; while the Laodiceans, who had an overweening conceit of their own piety
and spiritual intelligence, "walked after the flesh," in the fashion
universally illustrated in the practice of the pietists of all the "Names
and Denominations of Christendom," and of the "christian
politicians," "liberal christians," and the political wire
workers and pullers, of our day. The Philadelphian party had no fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness, but reproved them. They had escaped from the
corruptions of the world through lust, and devoted their energies to the making
of their calling and election sure. They came
out, therefore, from among the Laodiceans, that they might not be defiled
by the uncleannesses of these unfaithful "fellow-servants and
brethren," and constituted what the Laodicean Catholics termed a Schism or
Heresy.
Now,
in the apocalyptic drama, the Philadelphian and Laodicean parties of the
Antipagan Body are represented by a Woman in two several and different
conditions. The woman apart from the relations of each condition, represents
the Antipagan Community as a whole, and irrespective of the many sects within
its pale. When the power of the Deity with the Constantinians, symbolically
styled "Michael and his Angels," was casting the Pagan Sin-power out,
so that place should be found for it no more in the heaven; the Woman appeared
in it arrayed in all the insignia of imperial state. This was a period of
revolution, in which power was passing from the pagan classes to the catholics.
The former "prevailed not;" for their armies were beaten and
dispersed by the catholic forces of Constantine, who became Emperor of Rome,
and proclaimed the superstition of the Laodiceans, the religion of the Roman
State. Thus truly, "a wonder appeared in the heaven" of Daniel's
Fourth Beast, the church, professedly christian, in union with the world adulterously united to another than Christ,
to the state; and therefore, in friendship with the world! Of the spiritual
relation of such a church to Deity there can be no mistake on the part of one
intelligent in the word. "The world's friendship," says James,
"is enmity with God. Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world
is the enemy of God." The said "Holy Apostolic Catholic" party
is therefore unquestionably God's enemy; and so are all such, together with all
that fellowship the union in all ages and generations, until the saints possess
the world and rule it in righteousness. The catholic party being a worldly
party, their leading spirits, or teaching prophets, were "of the world,
therefore they speak of the world, and the world heareth them." This is an
infallible rule by which the world's priests, or clergies, may be known. The
spirit that is in them is the spirit that is in the world - "the spirit
that works in the children of disobedience." It was predicted that
Anti-Christ should come - 1 John 2:18; 4:3. He was to be manifested through
false teaching concerning the flesh, or nature, of Jesus. In John's day there
existed "many antichrists," who denied that Jesus Anointed came in
"the flesh." They affirmed that he came in another sort of flesh than
that which is common to all men -in a holier nature, that was immaculate, or
pure and undefiled. This dogma, of course, rendered null and void the teaching
of the word which declares the condemnation of sin in the flesh, in the bearing
in his own body the sins of believers to the tree, when nailed thereon by the
predetermination of Deity. This, says John, was that of the Antichrist that
should come. It was a dogma that had many advocates so early as apostolic
times. Its teachers repudiated the fellowship of the apostles, and "went
out from them, because they were not of them." In denying the true nature
of Jesus, they preached "another Jesus;" and in so doing, denied that
the Jesus whom Paul preached was the Christ: and in denying this, denied that
the Father was manifested in common human flesh; and, therefore, denied the
Father and the Son; "for whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the
Father." "He is the antichrist," saith John, "that denieth
the Father and the Son;" and "this is the Deceiver and the
Antichrist." "He that abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not
God" - of the true teachings of God-manifestation he is wholly and
necessarily ignorant.
Now,
in the Catholic element of the Woman, the dogma characteristic of the Antichrist
was embodied. It only waited for a Head to become politically manifest. That
head was the Imperial Dynasty begotten in the woman-community by the working of
the Mystery of Iniquity, and born of her in the appearance of what the world
designates "THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPEROR." This son was the Man of Sin
in his birth, and the Head of the Holy Apostolic Laodicean Catholic Apostasy,
that was to rule all nations with a rod of iron - the Antichrist, that had
forced its way up to Deity, and usurped his throne.
Page 92 .
In
the consummation of this revolution in the civil and ecclesiastical
constitution of Daniel's Fourth Beast, the world had imposed upon it a
despotism more dreadful and terrible" than its predecessor, and no less
the enemy of God and the persecutor and destroyer of his saints. No sooner had
the Laodiceans become victorious over their pagan adversaries, and had acquired
political power, than they became violent oppressors of all who did not conform
to the standard of what they were pleased to style orthodoxy." As the
party and power of the Man-child escaped from the devouring jaws of the pagan
Dragon, and were enthroned in his place, they persecuted the Philadelphian
party which abode in the doctrine of Christ; and the woman became a fugitive
from imperial glory, in the sunshine of whose favor the unsealed professors of
the world's substitute for the one faith and hope of the gospel have basked
from the consummation of the Sixth Seal to the present century of the
unfinished Seventh.
After
the perfecting of the revolution of the fourth century, the issue was no longer
the Saints versus Imperial Paganism;
but "the Remnant of the Woman's Seed" versus the Imperial Laodicean Apostasy, known in history as
"The Holy Catholic Church." It assumed to itself this name after it
had been 'spued out of the mouth of the Spirit" as an unholy abomination
beyond all possibility of redemption. Prosperity accelerated corruption with
rapid strides until the patience of Deity had reached its lirnit. Consumption and
utter destruction of the antichristian apostasy were predetermined at a time
duly fixed and revealed. The Lawless Power, ho
Anomos, "that opposeth and exalteth itself over all called god, or
reverenced; so that he in the temple of the god as a god sitteth, showing forth
himself that he is a god;" this absolute power, styled in Dan. 11:36-39,
"the king who does according to his will, and exalts himself and magnifies
himself above every god," was to prosper till the indignation against Israel
be accomplished. He is then to stand up against the Prince of princes (Dan. 8:25), who will consume him with the
Spirit of his mouth, and destroy him with the manifestation of his
presence" - 2 Thess. 2:4-8. This is the consummation that presents itself
as the completion of the Seventh Seal prophecy; during all of which this the
Antichrist is seen developing itself with intense ferocity and impiety against
"the Deity, his name, his tabernacle and them that dwell in the
heaven" - Apoc. 13:6. It was not intended to permit the Mystery of
Iniquity to attain to instantaneous maturity as soon as the Woman gave birth to
her man-child. He had been nine months of
years in coming to the birth, and it was determined that he should pass
through youth and middle age to the decrepitude of all things human. But though
the Antichrist was to
Page
93
prosper
till the time appointed for his destruction by the saints, he was not to be
free from the troubles and ills of "the present evil world," in which
"there is no peace for the wicked, saith Yahweh; for they are like the
troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." It
is not compatible with the honor and goodness of God to allow them to rest
while they are blaspheming him and Oppressing and destroying his people. In the
absence, therefore, of "the Son of his handmaiden," Mary - "the
Son of man at his right hand whom he hath made strong for himself" - He
uses the wicked as his sword (Psa. 17:13) to torment one another for their abominations,
until the time appointed for the sword of judgment to be committed to the
saints, and the power of the wicked be by them destroyed.
All
things are of God, and "there is no power but of him. The powers that be
have been put in order under the Deity." He creates evil in punishment of
sin. He makes evil powers a terror to evil doers, who all subsist by his
permission, and by that only. Thus he tolerates as powers combinations of men
whose principles and practices are his abomination. Evil being in the world as
a present necessity, he gives shape and Organization to it, so that it may work
out his own purposes to the confusion and overthrow of the agents through whom
he operates. He does not leave the evil of this world to develop a chapter of
accidents, and to run riot as chance may occasion. Had he done so, the
Apocalypse would never have seen the light; for this remarkable instrument is a
rehearsal before the performance of the prearranged and methodical development
of the evil predestined to fall upon the Children of Jezebel" for their
worship of demons and images, and for their murders, sorceries, fornication,
and thefts - Apoc. 11:20,21. These were, and continue to be, the crimes of the
"Holy Catholic Church," and its family of "Denominations"
and "Names of Blasphemy," which recognize it as "the Mother
Church." Its superstition became excessive and its demoralization extreme.
"The christians of the seventh century," says Gibbon, "had
relapsed into a semblance of Paganism; their public and private vows were
addressed to the relics and images that disgraced the temples of the East; the
throne of the Almighty was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, saints, and angels,
the objects of popular veneration; and the Collyridian heretics, who flourished
on the fruitful soil of Arabia, invested the Virgin Mary with the name and
honors of a goddess."
The
Seventh Seal, then, being inducted by
the completion of the work of the angel ascending from the East for the sealing
of the 144,000, the time had come for the loosing of the Four Wind-Trumpet
judgments against the men of the Western Leg of the Imperial Catholic
Page
94
dominion.
The full effect of these four trumpets was the slaying of the sixth, or
imperial, head of Daniel's Fourth Beast. This "wound by a sword"
appeared for a long time to be unto death. For "the third part of a day
and the third part of a night," it lay prostrate as it were in death; but
at the end of that period "the deadly wound was healed;" and the
Imperial Head once more stood conspicuously before the nations as the sun of
the Western World.
Another
important result of these trumpets was the development of the Seventh Head of
the Dragon-Beast in the place of its throne, that is, in Rome. This was to
continue only a short space compared with its predecessor. After sixty years it
was abolished; and for many years after, the sovereignty of "the Eternal
City" was simply an affair of history.
Lastly,
in addition to these events, the striving of the winds upon the great
sea-nations caused the budding forth of the Horns upon the territory on which
also the Sixth Head afterwards thrust itself into position on recovering from
its deadly wound, and before which three of the ten horns fell, and were
"plucked up by the roots." Thus, the judgments of the first four
trumpets laid the foundation of what afterwards became the Europe of modern
times.
But
these scourges did not affect the Catholics of the East. Their hearths and
temples were still protected from the fire and sword of the destroyer. The
wrath of God upon their coreligionists of the West, however, failed to work
repentance in them for their worship of "the ghosts" of dead men and
women, adoration of images, murder of the saints; their sorceries, fornication,
and thefts. In twenty years alone of this wind-trumpet period - that, namely,
ending in the settlement of Italy by Justinian's Pragmatic Sanction, A.D. 554 -
Italy and Africa lost nearly twenty millions of their inhabitants. Yet did not
this cause reformation; but men went on waxing worse and worse, until the time
came that they must be tormented with scorpions and killed with serpent fire.
This
was the mission of the first two Woe-Trumpet angels, and constitutes the second
part of the Seventh Seal. The first woe-trumpet was not to extinguish the "Holy
Catholic" sovereignty of the East, but only to torment with the plagues of
war "those men who had not the seal of God in their foreheads;" that
is, all of the Greek Catholic superstition in contrast to the saints, who in
all ages are the sealed of the Father.
The
second woe-trumpet was to consummate what the first had only began. It was to
extinguish the supremacy of Greek Catholicism over all the territory destined
for subjugation by the powers brought
upon
the arena by these woes. But, as these two woes in their operation upon the
Eastern Leg of Nebuchadnezzar's Image wrought no more repentance upon the Latin
Catholics of the Western than the first four trumpets did upon their
coreligionists of the East, the judgments of the second woe were apportioned
also to the catholics of the Horn-Kingdoms of the Sea-Beast. Hence the second
woe-trumpet period, in its second part, comprehends the time of the prophesying
of the Two Witnesses against the Sea-Beast, in which they exercise their power
to shut up his heaven, and to smite his territory with all plagues as often as
they will. It also comprehends the later period of the crusades, in which
multitudes of the Sea-Beast, and Earth-Beast, and Image of the Beast,
populations, all demon-and-image-worshipping devotees, fell by the operation of
these woes. Other "voices" of the second woe were the killing of the
witnesses as the result of a war upon them by the authorities of the Sea-Beast
- a war waged against them when they were about finishing their testimony - and
Papal and Protestant factions became the antagonist rivalries of the West.
Another "voice" was the resurrection of the witnessing bodies, their
ascent to power, and the reign of terror in which they took direful vengeance
upon the civil and ecclesiastical orders of the Laodicean Apostasy, which had
put them to death three days and a half of years before.
The
ending of the second woe, at the ascription of glory to the God of heaven, A.D.
1794, prepares us to enter upon the Third Part or Section of the Seventh Seal.
This is the Seventh Trumpet or Third Woe. This period brings us to a
comparatively recent epoch in the relations of the Apostasy. The so-called
"Holy Catholic Church" and its "Branches," the "Names
of Blasphemy," of which the "Scarlet-Colored Beast" is
"full," in other words, the Roman Mother Church and her brood of
rebellious and protesting bastards were not one whit less blasphemous, or
nearer the truth, or walking less after "the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eye, and the pride of life," after all the dreadful judgments of
the first six trumpets, than were their Laodicean Fathers fourteen centuries
before. They still caused to be visited with imprisonment, torture, civil
disabilities, or death, "as many as would not worship the Image of the
Beast," and compelled "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free
and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and
that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name." They still continued their priestly
fornication, "forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from
meats." Their robbery of the people in tithes and offerings, under the
deceitful pretense of curing
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their
souls, was as rampant as ever. Sheer infidelity, or a barren formalism,
characterized the more 'liberal and enlightened" sections of the
"Christendom" of the Beast and Image of the Beast. Pietism was the
substitute for "sound doctrine," which could not be endured; and the
Law of Faith and the obedience it required were universally ignored. The
pietism was the blind superstition of sect, with unreasoning assent to the
dogmas of creeds and articles ordained by the authority of Catholicism
bewitched, and upheld by the force of "pike and gun." The witnesses
against these things being spiritually and civilly dead, though unburied, there
were none to disturb the quiet into which the established orders of the Beast
in Church and State, and the "many waters," or multitudes, they
controlled, had settled themselves for the tranquil and unlimited enjoyment of
their estate. They rejoiced that they could be no more tormented by the
prophesyings of witnesses they had slain, and that now all would be
"merry" as a marriage-feast.
But
"woe to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the voices of that
trumpet that was yet to sound." Their political fabric was shaken by a
great popular convulsion, which announced that their tormentors had come to
life again, and were preparing to go forth and to renew the conflict with the
kings, priests, and aristocratic orders of the Beast and his Image, which had
"overcome and killed them" for a time. This conflict was renewed by
the witnesses against the Beast, and is consummated by Jesus and his Brethren,
the saints, after his advent and their resurrection. When the Seventh Trumpet
shall have completed its soundings, "the mystery of the Deity will be
finished, as He hath declared the glad tidings to his servants the
prophets." The Mother Church and her harlot progeny, with all that sustain
the existing order of things, are woebestruck under this third and last section
of the Seventh Seal. Their kingdom is filled with darkness, and they gnaw their
tongues for pain; yet repent they neither to give God glory, nor of their blasphemies
and deeds.
What,
then, remains for such a generation but capture and "destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power?" The Laodicean
Apostasy in its Greek, Latin, and Protestant forms, can only be destroyed by
this judicial manifestation of the presence of the Lord Jesus. When judgment is
given to him, judgment is also given to the saints, for He is one of them,
being the head of their body, or Chief. To him and them is assigned the
deliverance of the nations in the only way they can be delivered, by that,
namely, of "destroying them who destroy the earth" - ch. 11:18. To
attempt to reform the world by any agency extant is useless. Mankind is
intoxicated, and therefore insane, and beyond the reach, consequently, of any
Page 97
spiritual
amendment resulting from any appeal to their understanding based upon "the
word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." The people are brutish,
and their most revered leaders in church and state maniacally hallucinated.
Nothing can be done with individuals or nations until their attention is
gained; and all public meetings show that the blind multitude will only listen
to that which flatters them, or is spoken in accordance with their prejudices.
"When the judgments of Yahweh are abroad in the earth the inhabitants of
the world will learn righteousness" - Isa. 26. This is certain. Nothing
but judgment can meet the necessities of the case; for the same authority
saith, "Let favor be showed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness."
Now the decree has gone forth, that from the rising to the setting of the sun
all nations shall assemble in a certain appointed way to worship the one King
of the whole earth in Jerusalem - Zech. 14:9,17; Mal. 1:11; Apoc. 15:4; for the reason given, "because
his judgments are made manifest." By these judgments the Eternal Spirit in
corporeal manifestation will "avenge the heaven, the holy apostles, and
prophets on their enemies;" visit with a just punishment the Apostasy in
all its unhallowed forms, and expel from the high places of the Dragon-Beast
all its spirituals of wickedness, that "the kingdoms of this world may
become the Kingdoms of Yahweh and of His anointed" - Apoc. 11:15; and all
their subject nations be blessed in Abraham and his seed according to "the
Gospel of the Kingdom."
Now,
the judgments that are to accomplish all these results are those to be
displayed "in the days of the voice of the Seventh Angel when he shall
sound" - ch. 10:7. This seventh trumpet is the trumpet of Isa. 18:3;
27:13; Zech. 9:14;Matt. 24:13; l Cor. 15:52 ; l Thess. 4:16. It is the
conclusion of the premises laid by the sounding of the previous six. This
seventh apocalyptic trumpet in the seventh period of its sounding brings out
the events prefigured in the Mosaic trumpet of the Jubilee. It brings in its
consummation "the Atonement," or Covering
Over, of the sins of Israel, liberty from their long previous bondage to
the House of Esau, and return to their possessions in the Holy Land - Lev.
25:9,10. The assembling of the tribes is proclaimed, and their camps are
marshalled for their journeyings. The princes, heads of the thousands of
Israel, i.e., the saints, gather together unto Christ, and Israel is saved from
their enemies - Num. 10:2,4,9; 1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Thess. 2:1.
In
Isa. 27:13, it is styled "the Great Trumpet," which Zech. 9:14,
testifies shall be blown by ADONAI YAHWEH, rendered "Lord God," in the C.V., but literally, He who shall be Lords, that is, by the
Eternal Spirit incarnate in Jesus and his Brethren. When Jericho was to be
taken
Page 98 .
there
were seven periods appointed for the sounding of trumpets. One trumpet-sounding
was blown daily for six successive days; but on the seventh they sounded seven
times, and at the seventh time the wall of the city fell and Jericho was taken.
Thus there were thirteen circumurban soundings
seven upon as many days, and six additional on the seventh; but at the
thirteenth only was the city destroyed. So in relation to the capture and
destruction of Babylon by the Saints. The seven trumpets all sound against her
during seven successive periods; but on the seventh period, or last day of
sounding, there are seven soundings, apocalyptically styled "Vials."
Six are developed, but "the great city" is not fallen. At last, the
seventh vial-outpouring, or blast, of the seventh day sounding is manifested by
ADONAI YAHWEH; "and the people shout, for the Lord hath given them the
city." The Lord Jesus and the Saints cooperate personally and visibly in
the executing of "the judgment written," which especially pertains to
the Seventh Vial, or last period of the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet.
This
is the last and greatest of the "Woes." It is, in its seventh period,
'the time of Jacob's trouble, out of which, however, he shall be saved" - Jer.
30:7. But not of Jacob only, but also of 'the House of Esau," which shall
be as stubble to the devouring flame, when "saviours shall come up on
Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be Yahweh's"
- Obad. 17-21; for at that time, which is "the time of the end," when
'the indignation shall be accomplished, and that determined done" -
"Michael shall stand up, the great prince who standeth for the posterity
of Daniel's people; and there shall be a time of trouble, apocalyptically represented
by "a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so
mighty an earthquake and so great" (ch. 16:18) - or, as Dan. 12:1,
expresses it, 'a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation to
that same time." Then will the dead who have walked in the truth be raised
to incorruptibility; and the Son of Man will send his messengers with a trumpet
of great voice, and they shall gather together his elect ones from all the
nations, from the end of the heavens; and they shall return -- Deut. 30:3-5;
Matt. 24:31.
The
sounding of the seventh trumpet results in the fall of Babylon the Great, the
abolition of the powers of the world, and the establishment of the kingdom
which is possessed by Jesus and his Brethren for a thousand years. These mighty
results are not effected in an instant. The angels, or agents, of the vials
encompass the city six times before judgment is assumed by Jesus and his
Brethren. Hence, before their mission in the tragedy is evolved, the five vials
are poured out upon "the earth." "the sea," 'the rivers and
fountains of waters," "the Page 99
sun,"
and "the throne and kingdom of the Beast." The judgments of these
vials of the Seventh Trumpet do not work repentance in the Laodiceans, but only
anguish, because of their "pains and sores." They affect chiefly
antichristendom - the Horns, Sixth Healed Head, and Image; i.e., the Horns and
Eighth Head.
The
Sixth Vial has primarily to do with the eastern section of the fourth beast
territory. Its judgments are poured out upon the Euphratean district, where the
third part of the men of the Laodicean Apostasy had been politically killed by
the messenger powers confined, until loosed, by the Euphrates. Under this vial
the time comes to dry up the power which keeps them in vassalage and subject.
Not, however, for their sake, and for their restoration to their former
position, but as a preparation for the establishment of that EASTERN KINGDOM
which is to be possessed by the Theistic Kings, the Saints, and is to rule over
all the earth.
This
vial is divisible into four parts, each part being characterized by a notable
series of events. The drying up of the Euphrates is characteristic of the first
part; the political wonder-working of the frog-like spirits of demons, the
second; the Eternal Spirit's advent in Jesus and the Saints, the third; and the
postadventual gathering of the powers that be into Armageddon, the fourth.
The
second part has to do with the whole Laodicean Habitable apportioned to the
Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, whose policies developed by the
machinations of the Frog Power bring them into position for conflict with Jesus
and his Brethren, styled "the war of the great day of Ail-shaddai,"
or God Almighty.
The
third part has to do with the affairs of the Saints exclusively, and belongs to
the things written on the inside of the scroll. It announces the appearance of
"the Lord, the Spirit," and the blessing at this time of all Saints
who shall not be found naked or uncovered. In this part of the sixth vial,
"the King comes in to see the guests furnished for the wedding" -
Matt. 22:10,11; and to scrutinize them, that it may be seen who of them are fit
associates for his majesty, and who are not. At this epoch "the Great White
Throne" is placed, styled by Paul in Rom. 14:10; and 2 Cor. 5:10, "the Judgment Seat of
Christ," before which all constitutionally in Christ appear. They stand
before it bodies, or living souls, such as Adam was when he was created from
dust of the ground. Their resurrection brings them back to nature, and so
restores to them identity, and enables them to "give account of themselves
to God." Paul will be there to give account of himself among the rest. All
called saints, who by the gospel have been invited to the Kingdom, who cannot
give a good account of them-
Page 100 .
selves;
who, in other words, have been "walking after the flesh, or "sowing
to the flesh," between their immersion into Christ and their death, will
be pronounced "naked," not having "watched and kept their
garments." These will therefore be put to shame and contempt, and will be
condemned to "receive things in body" accordant with their deeds -
Matt. 16:27; Rom. 2:6. Negatively, they will not be "accepted of
Christ;" they will not be "clothed upon with the house from
heaven;" "immortality will" not "be swallowed up of
life;" they will not be permitted to "eat of the tree of life in the
midst of the paradise of the Deity;" but affirmatively, they will be
"injured by second death;" they will be "blotted out of the book
of the living;" they will "die" and "reap corruption"
- Apoc. 2:11; Psa. 69:28; Rom. 8:13; Gal. 6:8. Thus, they will receive in bodies natural "bad things"
according to their previous works, which they could not do if by resurrection per se they were of necessity
incorruptible and immortal.
Judgment
at the house of God being ended (1 Pet. 4:17) by the separation of the good and
bad fish enclosed by the gospel net (Matt. 13:47,48), the good are appropriated
by the Lamb for future use. Cleansed and purified from tares they constitute
the wheat of his garner. All "false brethren," and mere pretenders,
not having on the wedding garment, being cast into outer darkness, those who
are accepted by the King as "holy, unblamable, and irreproachable in his
sight" (Col. 1:22), "enter in through the gates into the holy
city" -Apoc. 22:14; and become "the 144,000 having the Lamb's
Father's name written on their foreheads" - ch. 14:1. These accepted ones
are the saints to whom judgment is given for the destruction of the Fourth
Beast - Dan. 7:22,26. "They follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth"
in all the scenes and enterprises of "the war of the great day of
Ail-Shaddai," until they are seen no longer as the Rainbowed Angel with
feet as pillars of fire - ch. 10:1; but under the new aspect of Divine Harpers
standing on a sea of crystal, no longer "mingled with fire," as the
conquerors of the beast and all pertaining to that hateful dominion, singing
the song of victory - the song of Moses and the Lamb-ch. 15:2.
Thus,
the events of this third part of the sixth vial are an organization and
preparation of the Stone-Power - the cutting of the Stone out of the mountain
without hands - Dan. 2:45; for the work
of smiting Nebuchadnezzar's Image on the feet, and of reducing the broken
pieces to powder, light as the chaff of the summer threshing floors, that all
may be carried away of the tempest and found no more. The Stone-Power is
constituted of the Eternal Spirit, or Deity, manifested in Jesus and the
Saints, "glorified together," and directing
Page 101
and
leading the tribes of Israel, and the mixed multitude commingled with them. At
this time, and thus officered and commanded, Israel will have arrived at
"their latter end;" have been made "willing;" and have been
energized for "one to chase a thousand, and for two to put ten thousand of
their enemies to flight" - Deut. 32:29,30. "Yahweh Elohim," the
Spirit incarnate in Jesus and his Brethren "is with them and the shout of
the King is among them." They have now "the' strength of the unicorn;
and are risen up as a great lion, and lifted up as a young lion; and shall not
lie down until he devour the prey, and drink the blood of the slain." The
time now comes for the King of Israel to be higher than Gog, or Agag; and for
his kingdom to be exalted. Thus officered, and commanded by Michael the Great
Prince, "he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their
bones, and pierce them through with his arrows." In this third part of the
sixth vial, the Star of Jacob prepares to shine forth as Israel's Sceptre, and
to smite the princes of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth - him that
remaineth of the city - Num .23:21,24; 24:7,8,14,17-19.
The
saints being "gathered together unto Christ," his day is come; and
the due season at length arrived for the consumption and destruction of the
Lawless One by the spirit of his mouth, and the manifestation of his presence -
2 Thess. 2:1-8. All things being thus ready, the messenger-power of the Sixth
vial proceeds to the gathering of the kings of the earth, and of the whole
habitable, into Armageddon. This introduces the fourth part of the vial, and
creates the situation necessary to the parallel outpouring of the seventh. In
this fourth section of the vial-period the peoples will associate themselves
against Israel, in whose midst Immanuel now is; and, under the fiery flying
serpent of Assyria, will rush as the rushing of many waters, and with the sound
of the roaring seas, to spoil and scatter them - Isa. 8:9,10; 14:25,29;
17:12-14. They will ascend like a storm-cloud to cover the land in this the day
of Yahweh's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion
- Isa. 34:1-8; 63:1-6. He will cause them to come up from the north parts, and
bring them upon the mountains of Israel, which are the apocalyptic
'Armageddon" - Ezek. 38:9; 39:2,4. There, under the king of the north,
encamped between the seas, even to the mountain of the glory of the holy (Dan.
11:41,45) will they be gathered against Jerusalem to besiege and take it, and
rifle it, and to make captives of its residue - Zech. 14:2. But they will not
find therein the King of Israel. By this gathering of all nations against
Jerusalem, in tempestuous conflict among themselves for the possession of the
holy city, which becomes to them "a cup of trembling," and "a
burdensome stone" (Zech. 12:2,3) the judgments of the Sixth vial
Page 102
are
closed. It will have assembled the Laodicean and other heathen in that part of
Armageddon called in Joel "the valley of Jehoshaphat;" where Yahweh
Elohim, the Spirit incarnate in the Saints, will sit in judgment upon them.
"The mighty ones" of the Spirit having descended into the arena, or
valley of decision or threshing, and its fats overflowing with multitudes upon
multitudes of wicked, "the great and terrible day of Yahweh" is about
to shine forth in their overthrow and destruction - Joel 3:9-14.
The
fourth section of the Seventh Seal is the seventh and last vial. The judgments
of this pertain emphatically to "the great and terrible day of
Yahweh," styled in ch. 14:7, "the Hour of his Judgment." It is
"the consummation of the seventh seal, which fills up the wrath of
Deity" upon the Laodicean Apostasy. It is the vial-period in which the sea
of nations is mingled with the fiery indignation of the Eternal Spirit-- ch. 15:2. It begins with Yahweh going
forth to fight against the assembled nations; and in vanquishing them in
Armageddon, to stand upon the Mount of Olives preparatory to his triumphal
entry into Jerusalem - Zech. 14:3-4., 9:9,10; Psa. 24:7-10; 118:26; Matt.
23:39; Apoc. 14:1. This defeat consummates the outpouring of the seventh vial
upon "the Air" - it shakes the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and
the dry land; it shakes all nations to the overthrow of the throne of kingdoms
and the destruction of the strength of their dominions -Hag. 2:6,7,21,22; Joel
3:15,16. Consequent upon the full exhaustion of the vial is the darkening of
the sun and moon, and the extinguishing of the stars of the Gentile aerial, by
the bathing of Yahweh's sword therein. In the words of the Spirit, "all
the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together
as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from
the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree" - Isa. 34:4,5; Joel 3:15; and as a consequence, he before
whose face this earth and heaven flee away (Apoc. 20:11) appropriates the
world's kingdoms to himself and friends - Apoc. 11:15.
The
overthrow of the armies of the nations in Armageddon is the manifestation of
the end. Subsequently to the defeat of the enemy, by which the king effects his
entrance into the Holy City, he issues a proclamation, styled "a great
voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne," announcing that
"It is done" - ch. 16:17; 21:16. What is done? "That which is
determined" - the full accomplishment of the indignation which scatters
the power of the holy people - Dan. 11:36; 12:7. The "time of the
end" is finished when the angel-power of the seventh vial has poured out
all the wrath upon "the air" of the Nebuchadnezzar Image: the
"time, times, and a half," or 1260 years of
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Dan.
12:7, are expired; and the 1335 years of verse 12 also. This exhaustion of the
indignation is styled "the consummation" in Dan. 9:27. The
indignation hath its first end and its "last end" (Dan. 8:19) and
between these two ends a long intermediate interval of centuries of desolation.
The seventh vial is identical with "the last end," in which the
Little Horn of the Goat power, "the king who doth according to his will," "the
Assyrian" (Mic. 5:5), "Gog
of the land of Magog," "the King of the north," Nebuchadnezzar's
Image, the four great beasts from the sea, "the dragon," "the
Beast and his Image," the ten horns----all terms representing "the
kingdom of men" - will stand up in battle array against the Prince of
princes and his faithful and chosen followers. But affliction comes upon the tents
of Cushan, and those of the land of Midian are made to tremble at the Ensign
lifted up upon the mountain of Israel - Hab. 3:7; Isa. 18:3. Great and terrible
is the power of the Holy One in the judgments of the seventh vial. "He
stands, and measures the earth; he beholds and drives asunder the nations; and
the everlasting mountains are scattered, and the perpetual hills do bow";
or, in the words of Apoc. 16:20, "every island fled away, and the
mountains were not found." Every battle of the warrior is with confused
noise, and garments rolled in blood; but he who comes with dyed garments from
Edom, is with burning and fuel of fire - Isa. 9:5; 63:1-6; 66:15,16. The armies
of the kingdom of men issue forth as a whirlwind to scatter him; but vain are
all their efforts; for He will march through the earth in indignation, and
thresh the nations in anger; for he goes forth for the salvation of his people,
and he will not be foiled.
"It
is done." Is the result of the exhaustion of this vial upon "the
air," the fourth beast of Daniel's vision will have been totally destroyed
in all its parts, and the kingdom of God established as the sole political
organization for the government of the nations. It will then be said,
"Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith Adonai Yahweh; this is the day
whereof I have spoken - whereof he has spoken by his servants the prophets that
he would break the power of the Gentiles, when saviours should come up on Mount
Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the Kingdom should be to Yahweh" -
Ezek. 39:8; Obad. 21.
Such
is the general result of the Seventh vial upon 'the air." There are,
however, certain stages through which judgment passes to the subversion of the
existing order of things, and the establishment of that which is to last
unchanged for a thousand years - "the world to come." This fourth
section of the Seventh Seal is divisible into two acts, or summaries of detail.
The first relates to what may be styled, the
first angel mission of the seventh vial; the second, to the second and
Page 104
third angel missions of the
same. The
first angel mission forewarns the nations of what is prepared to burst forth
upon them. It announces that the Hour of Judgment has actually arrived; and
declares the glory of Yahweh among the Gentiles inhabiting Tarshish, Pul, Lud,
Tubal, Javan, and the isles afar off from Jerusalem - Isa. 66:19; Apoc. 14:6.
This manifesto is proclaimed after the advent and resurrection, and separation
of the tares from the wheat at the judgment seat of Christ, and occupation of
Jerusalem by the great king, and before the fall of Babylon by certain "of
those who escape." They are sent as moshkai
kesheth, "sounders of truth," to blow the great trumpet of the
jubilee, and to invite all nations to do homage to the King of the Jews - Isa.
18:3; 27:13; 66:19; Lev. 25:10; Apoc. 10:11. To this proclamation succeeds the
day of affliction, in which a great sacrifice is offered by Yahweh for the
birds and beasts of prey - "the flesh of the mighty, and the blood of the
princes of the earth" - Lev. 23:27-32; Ezek. 39:17; Apoc. 19:17.
The
offering of this sacrifice is the punishment of the goats -Zech. 10:3-6; Matt.
25:31-46; and constitutes the second act of this fourth section of the seventh
seal. The offering is the mission of the mighty angel with the rainbow upon his
head, whose countenance is as the sun, and his progress as moving pillars of
fire - Apoc. 10. He places his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the
earth, and thus takes up a burning position upon the territory of the
ten-horned, and two-horned beasts of ch. 13. "The earth and the whole
habitable" thus become an arena of intense conflagration, in which the
Gentile body politic is given to the sword and the burning flame - Dan.
7:10,11:--"the sea" is mingled with fire, and the "the
earth" becomes "a lake of fire burning with brimstone" - ch.
15:2; 19:20: - "the Aion-Fire prepared for the Devil (Dragon - ch. 20:2)
and his angels" - Matt. 25:41; into which all are cast who are condemned
to share in the punishment inflicted upon the goats - ch. 20:15; 14:9- II.
This
rainbowed angel is symbolical of the Eternal Spirit incarnate in Jesus and his
Brethren, the glorified saints, in their warfare against 'the beast and his
image," over which they get the victory. He is the "Four Living Ones
full of eyes," in one symbol, giving utterance to the roar of the Lion of
the Tribe of Judah- Joel 3:16; 2:11; Jer. 25:30-38; Isa. 42:13-16. What
proceeds from the company of actors represented by this symbol, "proceeds
from the throne," whence issue forth "lightnings, thunderings, and
voices" - ch. 4:5. The rainbowed messenger is the embodiment of "the
seven lamps of fire burning before the throne" - of the "seven horns
and seven eyes, the seven spirits of the Deity, sent forth into all the earth" - ch. 4:5; 5:6. "When
Page 105
he
had cried," or made the proclamation pertaining to the first angel
mission, which is responded to by the armies of the Ten Horns rushing forth as
a whirlwind to scatter him (Hab. 3:14; Apoc. 17:14) "seven thunders utter
their voices" - ch. 10:3. The details of these thunders are not specified.
They will become history to be read by the generations to come when they shall
have thundered down all opposition to the dominion of the saints. It would have
swelled the apocalypse to an unwieldy size, and have greatly augmented its
complications, to have recorded in detail the utterances of these thunders.
John was therefore commanded to "seal up those things which the seven
thunders uttered, and to write them not." Hence, all we can say about them
is, that as "thunder," which implies lightning, is the symbol of
destruction, the seven thunders augur only a bitter practical prophecy to many
peoples, nations, tongues, and kings - ver. 9, 11.
But
in the hand of this mighty heaven-descended Spirit-Messenger, not naked spirit,
but "clothed with a cloud" of the holy and blessed of the Father, is
"a little scroll open." It is not closed or rolled up like the
seven-sealed scroll, but open and unsealed. It is the scroll of judgments in
bitter manifestation, in current outflow from the body of John and his
coworkers in the execution of the judgments written - ch. 10:9; Psa. 149:5-9.
It contains the denouement of the
apocalyptic tragedy---the issue of the plot, or, as Daniel was informed,
"the end of the matter."
In
this little open scroll is written the performances of the actors in the second
and last act of the fourth section of the seventh seal. It is, therefore, the
key that opens or unlocks "the Mystery of the Deity as he hath declared
the glad tidings to his servants the prophets" - ch. 10:7. Upon it are
inscribed the missions of the second and third angels, comprehensive of the
judgment of Babylon, the conquest of the Ten Horns and destruction of the
Beast, and the slaying of "the remnant" not included in the symbol,
by the white-robed battalions of the King of kings and Lord of lords - ch. 19.
The
mission of the second angel is to destroy "Babylon the Great, the Mother
of Harlots and the Abominations of the earth" - ch. 14:8. It is a work of
the saints to do this; for she is "drunk with their blood, and with the
blood of the witnesses of Jesus" - ch. 17:6; 18:4-8. Hence, they are the
messenger-power of the second mission. They enlighten the nations with the
glory of the co-working Spirit, so that they bring into contempt the Laodicean
Apostasy in its Greek, Latin, and Protestant manifestations, causing the
spiritual merchants of all privileged and unprivileged sects of
"Christendom" to weep and mourn, "because no man buyeth their
merchandise any more" - ch.18:11
Page 106
.
The
Ecclesiastical Corporation of the Fourth Beast, by the abundance of whose
spiritual delicacies the great men of all nations, styled demons, foul spirits,
unclean and hateful birds, had waxed rich (ch. 18:2,3,23), being tormented to
utter and final extinction from "the Air" (vv. 8,15,21) by the second
symbolic angel, or Yahweh Elohim and the Saints (vv. 6,8), they continue their
work in the mission of the third angel to the tormentation and destruction of
the beast and false prophet-power in their civil and military organizations.
The adherents of these constitutions bewail and lament the breaking up of the
priest and clergy craft of 'Christendom" (vv. 9,10), showing that their
political existence continues beyond the fall of that "Mystery of
Iniquity." These, therefore, become the next object against which 'the
holy messengers and the Lamb" direct their exterminating judgments- ch.
14:9-11. This work of destruction continues so long as the smoke of their
torment ascends, which is till the body of the beast is destroyed by the
burning flame that issues forth from before the Ancient of Days or, as it is
apocalyptically expressed, eis aionas
aionon, to aions of' aions, which is to the commencement of the thousand
years' reign -Dan. 7:10,11; 2 Thess. 2:8; Apoc. 14:10,11.
This
whole burnt-sacrifice of the fourth beast in the day of Yahweh's vengeance
would have consummated the tragic drama of the apocalypse had there been no
Gentile Remnant beyond the jurisdiction of the fourth beast. Had Daniel's vision
presented before him only one beast, then there would have been no more to do
than to celebrate the victory, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and so
enter upon the reign. Or, had Nebuchadnezzar's Image consisted only of one
metal, and been pulverized by a single blow of the stone upon the feet, the
stone would at once have become a great mountain filling the whole earth. But
these suppositions do not obtain. There are four beasts to be disposed of, and
four metals, and a grinding of the whole to powder after the fracture of their
image-combination by the stone. The fourth beast and the iron teeth and brazen
claws thereof being in process of demolition by the second and third angel
missions, 'the remnant (ch. 19:21), or "dragon" (ch. 20:2,3), or first
three beasts of Dan. 7:4,5,6,12, are being also collaterally and coetaneously
subjected to the sword of the King of kings and his white-robed squadrons of
the heaven. This great potentate, riding this "white cloud" or body
of celestial horse (ch. 19:11,14), 'having on his head a golden wreath and in
his hand a sharp sickle" (ch. 14:14,15), reaps the harvest of the earth,
and gathers the clusters of the earth's vine, and casts them into the great
winepress "without the city," which he treads in anger,
Page107
making
them drunk in his fury, and so brings down their strength to the earth (Isa.
63:1-6; Joel 3:13; Apoc. 14:20).
The
result of the reaping the harvest and treading the great winepress is the
binding of the Dragon-power and the shutting of it up in the abyss for a
thousand years; in other words, the taking away of the dominion of the Assyrian
lion, the Medo-Persian bear, and the Greco Egypto-Anglican leopard, for a
season and a time - Dan. 7:12. These organizations of peoples are not
destroyed, as was the Babylonian fourth beast embodying the Laodicean Apostasy.
They are conquered and deprived of dominion, which is transferred to their
conquerors the saints, who will have brought down their strength with a
sanguinary and mighty overthrow. Thus, Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Khush, Elam,
Shinar, and the islands of the sea, will have felt the edge of their two-edged
sword, as well as Europe and the West; for, like birds of prey, their tribes
will "fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the West; they will
spoil them of the East together; they will lay their power upon Edom and Moab,
and the children of Ammon shall obey them" (Isa. 11:11,14). The face and
condition of the East will then be altogether changed. With the present
spiritual and temporal constitution of 'Christendom" destroyed, and the
East brought into subjection to Deity, the nations will then be truly
"blessed with" and "in Abraham and his seed," as predicted
in the gospel of the kingdom. Yahweh will be made known to Egypt, and the Egyptians
shall know Yahweh in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation. . . In that
day shall there 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 with
Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land; whom Yahweh Tz'vaoth shall bless,
saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and
Israel mine inheritance - Isa. l9:21-25
As
to the leopard, or "Philistines toward the west," the third beast, of
which Egypt is a part, Tarshish and Javan, these also become a spoil in the war
of the great day of Yahweh Ail-Shaddai. The Tyrian commerce of the Great Sea is
turned from Britain to Palestine as a flowing stream; and "her merchandise
and her hire is holiness to Yahweh; it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for
her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before Yahweh, to eat
sufficiently, and for durable clothing" Isa 23 18; 60 5 9; 61 6 ;66 12,
Psa .45:12; 72:10.
In
the development of the second and third angel-missions, and in the harvesting
of the earth and treading of its vintage, all the work of the seventh vial will
have been accomplished. All its voices, thunders,
Page 108 .
and
lightnings, will have been hushed into eternal silence; the vibrations of the
greatest earthquake that ever shook the nations will have ceased their
tremblings for ever; the threefold divisions of the great city will all have
been confounded in the fall of Babylon, and the flight of every political
island, and disappearance of the imperial mountains of ancient date. Jesus and
his Brethren, energized by Yahweh, the Eternal Spirit, descending as a tempest
of hail, a destroying storm, will have beaten down the Assyrian, and swept away
all refuges of lies. The Laodicean Apostasy will have been demolished and for
ever abolished; and "the smoke of the temple from the glory of the Deity,
and from his power, will all have cleared away, and men will enter into the
temple and go out no more (Isa. 30:30; 28:2,17; 32:19; Ezek. 38:22; Apoc.
11:19; 25:8; 3:12; 16:17-21). "IT IS DONE. " "The Air" is
purified of "the spirituals of wickedness in the heavenlies" (Eph.
6:12), and nothing remains but for the victorious saints and the conquered
world of nations to celebrate the victory.
*************************************
Such
is a brief sketch of this remarkable prophecy, outlined in the light of the
prophets, the testimony of history, and the reality of what exists, truly
brought out by the unerring principles of apostolic truth. The Apocalypse is
its own evidence of its divine authenticity. Its perfect harmony with Moses and
the prophets, the discourses of Christ Jesus, and the teachings of all the
apostles; its unique and inimitable structure, and its complete frustration of
all the attempts of "the wise and prudent" to comprehend it (Matt.
11:25), are evidences that it originated, not from John or any other of his
learned or unlearned contemporaries, but from the mind of Him to whom are known
all his works from the beginning. It brings to nothing "the understanding
of the prudent," and resolves into outer darkness the wisdom of all the
world's rulers and soul-merchants, in whatever name or denomination they may rejoice
in Church and State. "If any man will do the Father's will, he shall know
of the doctrine whether it be of the Deity" - John 7:17. No man can do his
will who is not intelligent in "the truth as it is in Jesus;" because
his will demands an enlightened obedience. A man, therefore, who is not an
enlightened believer, is essentially deficient in the prime prerequisite
qualification of an interpreter and critic of interpretations. This is the
reason why there is not a single scriptural interpretation of the apocalypse
extant from the days of Sir Isaac Newton to the current year. Many attempts
have been made, but they have all proved failures; because their "wise and
prudent" authors, being the mere embodiments of the dogmatic pietism
sanctified in the world's opinion by the "names of blasphemy" of
which "the scarlet
Page 109
colored
beast," in contemporary existence with Christ's advent, is
"full" (ch. 17:3), are necessarily ignorant of 'the first principles
of the oracles of God." A man cannot be loyal and true to his Romish or
Protestant creed and understand the apocalypse. His head will be full of
immortal soulism, heaven beyond the realrns of time and space, purgatory,
mariolatry and saint-worship, eternal subterranean hells, baby-ghosts
transformed into angels studding the cloudy vapors of the air, and of all other
speculations kindred to these. Such a wise and prudent genius mistakes a
community of confessed "miserable sinners," assembling in an
ecclesiastical temple of the dead, and rejoicing in the Queen as their head,
for the Church of Christ, and looks only for saints in "sainted"
sinners translated to the skies! Such a "theologian," be he lay or
clerical, conformist or dissenter, never has, and never can, understand the
apocalypse till he abandons these traditions of the Apostasy.
The
author of this work does not address himself to such. He writes of them as an
interpretation of the book that delineates the terrible catastrophe coming upon
them demands; but he writes for "the servants of the Deity," that
they may read and understand. Lest, therefore, the sketch already given should
fall short of that simplicity necessary to the comprehension of the apocalypse
by the least intelligent of his brethren in Christ, the author invites their
attention to the following "Tabular Analysis," which presents, as it
were, synoptically, the subject matter of the previous sketch. The method of
the Analysis is suggested by the Apocalypse itself. The first general division
of the prophecy contains the first five chapters; the second, the seven sealed
scroll; the third, that portion pertaining to the introduction of the thousand
years' reign, or kingdom of God; the fourth, the prophecy of millennial
blessedness; and the fifth, the prophecy of the "little season."
These divisions must not be confounded with the divisions of the scroll; for
the two divisions of the scroll are comprehended in the second general division
of the prophecy.
The
Roman figures, I., II., III., IV., V., prefixed to certain captions of the
Analysis, indicate that all following that title belongs to the divisions so
numbered.
Page 110
TABULAR
ANALYSIS OF THE APOCALYPSE
GENERAL
SUBJECT
A REVELATION symbolically
and dramatically exhibited of the enmity between the Serpent and his Seed, and
the Woman and her Seed, as especially developed in the conflict between CHRIST
AND His BRETHREN with Daniel's Fourth Beast System of Powers: of the judgments
retributively affecting these; of the sufferings of Christ's Brethren in the
conflict; of their subjugation until the ANCIENT OF DAYS appear; of the
subsequent overthrow and destruction of the Powers of the World by Christ and
His Brethren; and of the consequent establishment of the Kingdom and Throne of
David promised to the saints, and never to be destroyed.
Gen.
3:15; Dan. 2:44; 7:21,22,26,27; Apoc. 6-20:5;
Heb. 2:11-14.
TIME
OF DEVELOPMENT
From
A.D. 107 to A.D. 1905 = A.M. 5995.
GENERAL
DIVISIONS
I. The Seven Apocalyptic Epistles to the
Seven Representative Ecciesias. II. The Seven-Sealed Scroll. III. The Little
Open Scroll containing the utterances of the Seven Thunders from the throne,
which John was forbidden to write. IV. The prophecy of Millennial Blessedness.
V. Prophecy of the "Little Season."
I.
THE SEVEN APOCALYPTIC EPISTHES
(See
the First Volume, page 428)
II.
THE SEVEN-SEALED SCROLL
1.
FIRST GENERAL DIVISION OF THE SCROLL
The
First Four and the Sixth Seals representative of the judicial manner of
"taking out of the way" the PAGAN OONSTITUTION of the "Dreadful
and Terrible Fourth Beast," which withheld the revelation of "the
LAWLESS ONE;" (Dan. 7:7; Apoc. 6; 2 Thess. 2:3-9) and the consequent
manifestation of the CATHOLIC MYSTERY OF INIQUITY, or Man-of-Sin Power, in the
Heaven of the said beast, or "Great Red Dragon" (Apoc. 12:1-5, 7-13).
TIME
OF EVENTS
From
A.D. 107 to A.D. 325
Page
111
2. SECOND GENERAL DIVISION OF THE SCROLL
The
Seventh Seal, Seven Trumpets, and the Six Vials to the appearing of Christ
"as a thief;" exhibiting the development of the Ten Horns of the Fourth
Beast, in the wounding of the Sixth Head and establishment of the Seventh
(Apoc. 7,8); the subversion of the Greek Catholic Dynasty of Constantinople
(Apoc. 9); the rising of Daniel's Episcopal Horn, or Eighth Head, that speaks
blasphemies and "as a dragon" (Apoc. 13:1-5, 11-18; 17); the war of the saints with this power; their
subjugation, death, resurrection, and ascension to the heaven, at the ending of
the Sixth Trumpet (Apoc. 11:3-12; 12:14,16,17; 13:6-10); judgments upon their
enemies, the Horns, Eighth Head, and Image (Apoc. 6:1-11), and the preparation
of their way (Apoc. 16:12-14).
TIME
OF EVENTS
From
A.D. 325 to the Fall Seasons of A.D. 1864-8, or thereabouts.
III.
THE LIT'TLE OPEN SCROLL
The
Seventh Seal, Seventh Trumpet, Seventh Vial, and Seven Thunders from the
manifestation of Christ and his Brethren as the Lamb in the midst of the
144,000 redeemed from the earth, to the full establishment of the Millennial
Throne and Kingdom of David upon the utter destruction of Daniel's Dreadful and
Terrible Fourth Beast; and the subjection of the first three, or the Lion, the
Bear and the Leopard.
Apoc.
4:5; 5:5-14; 7:9-17; 10; 11:15-19; 13:10; 14; 15; 16:15-21; 17:14; 18; 19;
20:1-6, 11-15; 21:8.
TIME
OF EVENTS
"The
Time of the End," (Daniel 8:17; 11:40; 12:14) from the Quadrennial Epoch,
A.D. 1864-8 to A.D. 1905.
IV. THE PROPHECY OF MILLENNIAL BLESSEDNESS
Millennial
blessedness and glory pervade the earth, and all its nations are "blessed
in Abraham and his Seed," acoording to the Gospel. The government of the
world being in the hands of Jesus and his Brethren, there is "glory to the
Deity in the highest heaven, over the earth peace, and good will among
men," who all rejoice in their great deliverance from the tyranny and
misrule of the spirituals of wickedness in the heavenlies of Church and State.
Daniel
7:14,27; Apoc 513 1413 1534 206 21927 221-5.
TIME
OF EVENTS
From
A.D. 1905* to A.D. 2905 (*)
Page
112
V PROPHECY OF THE "LITILE SEASON"
The
Postmillennial "Little Season," when the Adversaries of righteousness
administered by the saints in Church and State, will get up a widespread
rebellion against their government. War ensues, and their camp and capitol are
invested; but the power of the administration prevails; and with the
suppression of the insurrection, the time comes to consummate the work of
"taking away the sin of the world," in the destruction of "the
last enemy" - of "that having the power of death," and of
"the works of the Devil."
Apoc.
20:7-10; 21:1,3-7; 22:3; 1 Cor. 15:24-28; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8.
TIME
OF EVENTS
From
A.D. 2905 to A.D. 2910 = A.M. 7000
(*) Dr. Thomas' anticipations of the time of
the Lord's return proved premature. See comment upon this fact, and the
suggested reason for it on p. 1O.
SPECIAL
DIVISIONS
OF
THE
APOCALYPTIC
TRAGEDY
1.THE
FIRST SIX SEALS
ACT
I. - SEAL 1
The
ARCHER of the white horse goes forth from the Lamb with his bow, on a career of
conquest - ch. 6:1,2.
ACT
II- SEAL 2
The
rider of the red horse puts an end to the previous peace, and involves the
populations of the Fourth Beast polity in bloody civil wars-- ch. 6:3,4.
ACT
111-SEAL 3
The
Greco-Latin Horse black with lamentation, mourning and woe - ch. 6:5,6.
ACTS
IV - SEAL 4
War,
famine, pestilence, and barbarian invasion combined, sickly over the Roman
Horse with the pale cast of death and corruption -ch. 6:7,8.
Page
113
ACT
V - SEAL 5
A
period of great resistance unto blood on the part of the Bowmen engaged in the
conquest of the paganism of the Fourth Beast - ch. 6:9-11.
ACT
VI- SEAL 6
A
great earthquake inaugurates this judicial period. War in the heaven, (Apoc.
12:7) resulting in an eclipse of the sun, in the moon becoming blood, in stars
of the heaven, the stars drawn by the tail of the Dragon, falling to the earth,
and in the casting out thereinto of the great red dragon (Apoc. 12:4). The
heaven of the Dragon-polity departs as a scroll rolled up; and every mountain
and island change their places. The angels of the dragon are cast out with him
(Apoc. 12:9). No place for them any more in the heaven from which they are
ejected having been effectually conquered by the Archer - the fellow servants
and brethren of the souls under the altar; who conquered him by the blood of
the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, on account of which they were
slain, not loving their lives unto death (Apoc. 12:11; 6:9). Great rejoicing in
the heavens by them who succeed the ejected dragon and his officials, who rage
with great fury in the earth and sea of their late dominion (Apoc. 12:12). The
great day of wrath upon paganism.
The
woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, the Laodicean Apostasy,
imperialized, and the Man-of-Sin power revealed (Apoc.2:20; 3:16; 12:1-5).
II.
THE SEVENTH SEAL
Apoc.
8
This
seal covers the whole period from A.D. 325
to A.D. 1905, an interval of 1580 years. It therefore contains the
judgments specially allotted to the seven trumpets, seven vials, and seven
thunders.
It
treats of the development of the imperialized Laodicean Apostasy into "the
powers that be" of the Greco-Latin habitable under the forms of the Beast
of the Sea, the Beast of the Earth, (Apoc. 13) the scarlet-colored beast and
drunken woman (Apoc. 17:1-6), the image
of the Beast, (Apoc. 13:14-18; 15:2), and
of the relation of these powers to the fugitive woman and to the remnant of her
seed "who keep the commandments of the Deity, and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ" (Apoc. 12:17). They are prevailed against (Apoc. 13:7; 11:2;
Dan. 7:21); but the Ancient of Days comes to their relief; the tide of
adversity is turned; the Saints become victorious; the Apostasy
Page114
incorporated
in the Names and Denominations of "Christendom," is abolished; and
they take possession of the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven (Dan. 7:27) of Daniel's Four Beasts.
ARENA
OF THE SEVENTH SEAL
'The
Earth and the whole Habitable" (Apoc. 16:14). Territory of
Nebuchadnezzar's Image.
INDUCTION
OF THE JUDGMENTS OF THE SEVENTH SEAL
Though
cast out of the third of the Heaven, as indicated by his Tail drawing the third
of the stars of the heaven, and casting them into the earth (Apoc. 12:4), the
Dragon still retained power in "the earth and sea" of the Greco-Latin
Polity (Apoc. 12:12,13,15,16; 7:3). His power there was a "woe" to
their indwellers, not excepting those who professed the faith of Jesus.
Retribution, however, followed in his entire exclusion from the Heaven A.D.
324; upon which the Sealing of the 144,000 servants of the Deity, and the
period of 'Silence" about half an hour, began. Further retribution was
suspended during the silence; but this being ended, the prayers of all the
saints which ascended during the silence as a cloud of incense from the Golden
Altar of the Tabernacle of the Testimony before the Deity, was answered by
"voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and earthquake," (Apoc. 12:8;
8:3,4) which preceded the Preparation of the Seven Trumpeters to sound against
the earth and sea (Apoc. 8:6).
FIRST
SECTION OF THE SEVENTH SEAL
The
four winds of the earth for the injury of the earth, sea, and trees-ch. 7:1.
PREPARATION
FOR SOUNDING
Seven
angels having the seven trumpets prepare themselves to sound - ch. 8:6.
BLOWING
OF THE FOUR WINDS, OR FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS
ACT
I. - FIRST WIND-TRUMPET
Apoc.
8:7
The
hurting of the earth by hail and fire mingled with blood; by which a third part
of the trees, and all green grass is burned up.
ARENA The third part of the Fourth Beast habitable. A.D. 395
ACT
Il-SECOND WIND-TRUMPET
Ch.
8:8,9.
The
hurting of the sea by a great mountain burning with fire being cast into it; by
which the third of the sea became blood; the third of its living creatures
died; and the third of its ships was destroyed.
ARENA
- The third part of the sea of the Greco-Latin empire.
A.D. 429.
ACT
III- THIRD WIND-TRUMPET
Ch.
8:10,11
The
poisoning of the third of the rivers and fountains of waters with a deadly
bitterness, by the great blazing star, Wormwood, falling from the heaven into
them, and causing the death of many.
ARENA The third of the rivers and fountains of the
empire.
A.D.
450
ACT
IV. - FOURTH WIND-TRUMPET
Ch.
8:12.
The
darkening of the third of the luminaries of the Greco-Latin Catholic firmament
by smiting them; so that the day and the night of their system were without
ruling lights, and, therefore, shone not the third of them.
A.D.
476
NOTE
The
judgments of these Four Winds culminate in the development of the Seventh Head,
which "continues a short space," (Apoc. 17:10) and of the Ten
Diademed Horns of the Beast that rises out of the sea; (Apoc. 13:1); in the
"wounding as it were to death" of its Sixth Head; (Apoc. 13:3) and in
the consequent cession by the Dragon of his power, throne, and authority (Apoc.
13:2) over the affected third part, which, before the blowing of these winds,
was a constituent of his dominion.
TIME
OF EVENTS
From
A.D. 395 to A.D. 554, the end of the darkened day and night in the third of
them, being equal to a period of 159 years.
SECOND
SECTION OF THE SEVENTH SEAL
Apoc.
9
The
first two woe trumpets.
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ACT
I. - FIFTH TRUMPET OR FIRST WOE
Apoc.
9:1-11.
A
star falls from heaven into the earth, to whom is given the key of the pit of
the abyss, which he opens, and from its furnace a smoke issues that darkens the
sun and air. Out of the smoke locusts go forth into the earth with scorpion
power to torment "those men who have not the seal of the Deity upon their
foreheads," during five months, and to injure them other five. Their king
is styled the Angel of the Abyss; in Hebrew, Abaddon; in Greek, Apollyon.
TIME
OF EVENTS.
From
A.D. 632 to A.D. 932 = 300 years.
ARENA
- The territory of the Dragon upon which "the
sun" shone before being darkened by the smoke.
ACT
II. - SIXTH TRUMPET OR SECOND WOE
EASTERN
PART
Apoc.
9:13-21
Still
in response to the prayers of all saints, a voice from the four horns of the
golden altar of incense commands the four messenger powers, confined by the
great river Euphrates, to be loosed. They are prepared for successful
aggression against the Byzantine empire during the hour and day and month and
year, that, at the end of this period, they may slay with political extinction
the power of the men who ruled the Eastern Third of the Roman orb, and
worshipped demons and images, and were murderers, and sorcerers, and
fornicators, and thieves; and had not been smitten by the judgments of the wind
trumpets.
TIME
OF EVENTS
From
April 29, 1062, to May 29, 1453 = 391 years 30 days.
WESTERN
PART
Apoc.
11:1-13.
The
fugitive woman in the wilderness and the remnant of her seed, as the nave of
the Deity, the altar and the worshippers therein, measured by John. These are
the holy city, and posterior to their measurement, are trodden under foot forty
and two months by the Lion-Mouthed Gentiles of the unmeasured outer court; that
is, until the Ancient of Days comes.
But
"the earth helps the woman" from the time of her flight into the
wilderness of the two wings of the Great Eagle, where she is
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117
protected
for a time, times, and half a time (Apoc. ~:16,14). To "the earth,"
as the two witnesses against the woman's persecutors power is given to maintain
their testimony in sackcloth 1260 days. In exercise of their mission, they
smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will. At length the
Lion-Mouthed Beast of the Sea effects their subjugation and political
extinction. But after three days and a If they stand upon their feet again, and
ascend to the heaven in sight their enemies. At this crisis, an earthquake overthrows
a tenth of the city, "Babylon the Great;" titular distinctions within
the sphere of the convulsion are abolished, and many of those who rejoice in
them slain; rest are terror stricken, and give glory to the God of heaven.
During
the testifying of the witnesses the Ten Horns, the two homed beast of the
earth, and the image of the wounded sixth head of beast, appear upon the arena.
TIME
OF EVENTS
From
A.D. 312 to A.D. 1794, a period of 1482 years.
THIRD
SECTION OF THE SEVENTH SEAL
So
much of the seventh trumpet or third woe as is comprised in the first six vials
to the advent of Christ as a thief - ch. 16:15.
ACT
III. - SEVENTH TRUMPET OR THIRD WOE
Apoc.
11:14; 8:13.
The
judgments of this last woe extend to the end of the Seventh al, or victory of
the saints over the beast, his image, his mark, and .number of his name (Apoc.
15:2). In the days of the voice of this woe when its calamities shall be
complete, the mystery of the Deity will be finished, as he hath declared the
glad tidings to his servants the prophets (Apoc. 10:7). The Eloah of the
heavens will then have set up kingdom (Dan. 2:44) promised to them that obey
him (James 2:5); that the kingdoms of
this world will all have become Yahweh's and His Anointed's (Rev. 11:15), who
reigns for the aions of the aions.
But
before this glorious and blessed consummation, Yahweh Ail Shaddai, the Ancient
of Days, comes in (Zech. 14:5), upon the world a thief in the night (Apoc. 16:15). This is indispensable, because
it is ' personal mission to accomplish it (Isa. 40:10). At his coming the
nations will be in a state of anger among themselves, with distress and
perplexity; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those
things which are coming on the habitable (Luke 21:25).
In
the midst of this the saints are raised from the dead to their
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judgment;
after which all of them who are approved and chosen are recognized by the Lamb
as constituents of the 144,000, and follow him whithersoever he goes (Apoc.
14:1-4). Being approved, judgment is given to them for execution upon many
peoples, nations, tongues, and kings (Apoc. 10:11); in the rendering of which
there issue from them lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an
earthquake, and great hail, every stone being about the weight of a talent
(Apoc. 11:19; 16:21).
ARENA The whole habitable of Daniel's four Beasts.
FIRST
SIX SPECIAL DIVISIONS OF THE SEVENTH TRUMPET,
OR
THIRD WOE.
ACT
I. - FIRST VIAL
Apoc.
16:2
The
pouring out of wrath in the form of a noisome and grievous sore upon that part
of the earth inhabited and ruled by those having the mark of the beast, and who
worship his image.
ACT
Il-SECOND VIAL Verse 3
The
pouring out of wrath upon the apocalyptic sea, making it as the blood of a
corpse; so that every living soul therein died.
ACT
III. - THIRD VIAL. Verses 8,9
The
outpouring of wrath by which the rivers and fountains of waters of the beast's
dominion are turned into blood, in righteous retribution for the cruelties of
his Lion Mouth, perpetrated in that section of his empire upon the saints and
prophets whom he had subjugated and killed. This vial gives their
"destroyer" (Apoc. 11:18) blood to drink.
ACT
IV. FOURTH VIAL. Verses 4,7
The
outpouring of wrath upon the sun of the beast's dominion; and power is given to
a constituent of that luminary to scorch with great heat the blasphemers of the
Deity's name; yet they repent not to give him glory._________
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119
Verses
10,11
The
outpouring of wrath upon the throne of the Beast, which fills his kingdom with
darkness. The rulers and their adherents gnaw their tongues for pain, and
blaspheme the Deity of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they
repent not of their deeds.
ARENA
OF THE FIRST FIVE VIALS.
The
Horn-kingdoms of the Beast of the Sea, the Beast of the Earth, and the States
of the Image of the Sixth Head, commonly styled "the States of the
Church."
TIME
OF EVENTS
From
A.D. 1795 to A.D. 1819, a period of
24 years.
ACT
VI. SIXTH VIAL
Verses
12-16
Part I
Verse
12
Outpouring
of wrath upon the great river Euphrates, by which its water is dried up, that
the way of the kings of a Sun's risings may be prepared.
Part 2
Verse
13,14
Three
Frog-like, unclean, wonder-working spirits of demons issue forth from three
principal governments from the Mouth of
the Dragon, the Mouth of the Beast, and the Mouth of the False Prophet-------to
the powers of the earth and of the whole habitable --- to gather them for the
war of the great day of AIL-SHADDAI - the Seven Horns and Seven Eyes of the
Lamb, the Seven Spirits of the Deity sent forth into all the earth (Apoc. 4:5,6); the Spirit incarnate in Jesus
and his brethren, the Saints.
Part 3
Verse
16
While
the frog-like spirits are working, "the Lord the Spirit" (2 Cor.
3:17,18) comes into the world as a thief in the night. He descends from heaven
having great power - the key of the abyss and a great
Pg 120
chain
(Apoc. 18:1; 20:1) for the work of enlightening the earth with his glory (Apoc.
18:1). Having been clothed with a cloud (Apoc. 10:1: Heb. 12:1) of witnesses,
he stands on Mount Zion in the midst of the 144,000 - his companions and
co-workers - the mystical Son of Man, whose voice is as the voice of a
multitude (Dan. 10:6); as the sound of many waters (Apoc. 1:15). His head is
encircled with the rainbow of the covenant; his face is as the sun, and his
goings forth as pillars of fire. Thus prepared, he stands ready for action with
his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth, and a little open scroll in his hand, upon
which are inscribed, "the lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and
earthquake, and great hail," to be ministered by those who are honored to
take the scroll and to eat it up (Apoc. 10:9; 11:19).
Now
is the judgment of the nations - the Hour of judgment, in which they are
invited to fear the Deity and to give glory to him (Apoc. 14:6,7). Proclamation
is made by the One Body, now anointed and glorified, and of which Jesus is the
Head, that "there shall be no longer delay" in the finishing of the
mystery of the Deity. They sing a new song before the throne; and confidently
aver that they shall reign as kings and priests of Deity upon the earth (Apoc.
14:3,9); to accomplish which are the judgments of the Little Open Scroll given
to the Saints (Dan. 7:22).
Part 4
Verse
16
The
advent, or 'manifestation of the sons of the Deity," having transpired,
the angel of the sixth vial gathers the kings of the earth and of the whole habitable
into the place styled in Hebrew, Armageddon. This gathering is effected by the
events of the seventh vial.
TIME
OF EVENTS
From
A.D. 1821 to the overthrow in Armageddon
III.
- THE LITTLE OPEN SCROLL
FOURTH
SECTION OF THE SEVENTH SEAL
"THE
GREAT DAY OF AIL-SHADDAI"
Apoc.
10:2
The
things written in this scroll, sweet as honey in the mouth of them who eat it,
but bitter in its effects upon them that perish, are the remaining judgments of
the seventh seal, and wholly comprised in the seventh vial (and a fraction of
the sixth), which is the last division of the seventh trumpet, and fills up the
wrath of the Deity upon the
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nations
(Apoc. 16:14; Joel 2:31; 3:11). And whereas, all the judgments ot the Seventh
Seal running parallel with the Laodicean Apostasy are executed by the wicked
upon the wicked as the sword of Yahweh; (Psa. 17:13) those of this "little
open book," the crowning judgments of the wrath of the Deity, consummate
his indignation, and are assigned to the saints of the Rainbow, who have the
"honor" of their execution, by which they "prophesy again"
with John, "against many peoples and nations, and tongues, and kings"
(Apoc. 10:11).
THE
SEVENTH VIAL
Apoc. 16:7-21
The
exhausting of the judgments of this vial consummates the sounding of the
seventh trumpet which transfers the Kingdoms of this world to Yahweh, and his
Anointed Body -- the saints. The wrath of this vial is poured into the Air -
the firmament of the appropriated kingdoms. When the wrath upon "the House
of the Wicked" is expended, the Times of the Gentiles will have wholly
expired, and a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne
proclaims, "It is done!" (Ezek. 39:8; Apoc. 21:6) Yahweh's bow is now
made quite naked, even that word which went forth "conquering and to
conquer." (Hab. 3:9-13; Apoc. 6:2).
But,
between the advent of the Son of Man and the proclamation aforesaid, is an
interval of several years. This interval is Daniel's "time of the
end" - the time specially appointed for the judgments of the Little Open
Book. In it is developed the antitype in full of the Passover, of the First
Fruits, of the Blowing of Trumpets, of the day of Covering of Iniquity, of the
Jubilee, of the Feast of the Tabernacles, and of the Bearing of Palms. The
antitypical celebration of the last three feasts of Yahweh consummates the time
of the end, and inaugurates the reign of the thousand years. The judicial
events of this little open scroll open the "door in the heaven," and
place therein the Great White Throne upon which is set the jasper and
sardine-like Man, (Apoc. 20:11; 4:1,2,3) encircled with a coronetted
"multitude which no man can number" (Apoc. 4:4, 7:9). These are the
"thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousands" who are
prepared to go forth as a fiery stream, and as the Spirit's wheels of consuming
flame (Dan. 7:9,10), for the utter destruction of the body politic of the
Fourth Beast, and subjugation of the other three (Dan. 7:11,12).
In
their execution of "the judgment written" there is a great earthquake,
which develops Daniel's "time of trouble," (Dan. 12:1) in which the
superstitions of "Christendom" are abolished, and their
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blaspheming
clergies of all orders and degrees made to drink the cup of the wine of the
fierceness of Divine wrath. All islands and mountains of the political world
disappear; and the stone that smiles and grinds them to powder becomes a great
dominion, and fills the whole earth (Dan. 2:34,35,44,45).
With a view, therefore, to this "end of the matter," (Dan. 7:28),
the following symbolization thereof is revealed.
ACT
I. - MISSION OF THE FIRST ANGEL
Apoc.
14:6,7
The
postadventual proclamation of the good news concerning the Aion to all the
governments and populations of the habitable, announcing the fame and glory of
the Great King, (Isa. 66:19) and that the hour of His judgment has at length
arrived. In making this proclamation the class represented by John,
"prophesy again before many peoples, nations, tongues and kings." It
results in separating the nations one from another as a shepherd divideth sheep
from goats, (Matt. 25:32) and in the goats coming out like a whirlwind to
scatter Him and his hosts (Hab. 3:14; Apoc. 17:12-14).
THE
SEVEN THUNDERS AND THEIR VOICES
Apoc.
10:3
These
are the lightnings, and thunderings, and voices proceeding from the newly
established throne in the heaven (Apoc. 4:5). They are the lion-roaring voice
of the rainbowed angel, who strides the earth and sea with feet as pillars of
fire, or as fine brass glowing in a furnace Apoc. 1:LS; Isa. 30:30; 31:4; Joel
3:16). They result in the mightiest earthquake that ever shook the constitution
of the political world. The shepherd like separation of the nations divides the
great city Babylon into three parts, (Apoc. 16:19) and the kingdoms of nations
fall. ~The goats are punished," being conquered by the Lamb and his
associates in arms, (Zech. 10:3; 9:13; Apoc. 17:14; 19:19-21) who "follow him whithersoever lie goes"
ACT
II. - MISSION OF THE SECOND ANGEL
Apoc.
14:8
The
spirituals of wickedness in the heavenlies of the great city commonly styled
"Christendom," rewarded double according to their works by Yahweh
Elohim - Eternal Spirit incarnated in the quickened saints, and styled,
"heaven and holy apostles and prophets" (Apoc. 18:4-8,20-24). These
retaliate upon the Apostasy with torment and sorrow by which it falls, and is
abolished from the earth.
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