Jehovah in nearly all their theological notions. They scout the idea that
any actual evil exists in the universe. They deny the existence of the
devil, and of evil spirits. “Everything,” says Davis, “is forever
progressing in goodness and perfection,” _Ib._ p. 180. The salvation of
all men, is with them as certain as the operation of fixed laws. They
recognize no Saviour and no atonement in their system of faith. The
teachings of spirits, and “a certain organization of labor, capital and
talent,” they fancy, “will effect the desired cure” for all actual or
supposed ills, _Ib._ p. 178. They recognize no responsibility in the
sinner, but attribute his wrong-doings to ignorance and accident; and
their laws of right, are the dictates of their own wisdom.
Their system is essentially Pantheistic, all things being regarded by them
as a part and parcel of Deity. They argue that “every object which has an
existence in the universe must be in its nature good and pure, on the
principle that the effect must partake of the nature of the cause, and the
stream must be the corresponding emanation of the fountain from which it
flows.”—_Elements of Spiritual Philosophy_, p. 55. They teach that human
spirits are “formed primarily from the animating essences that pervade the
creation,—which essences,” they say, “are the breath and presence of the
Divinity;” and hence they argue, “that there are no spirits which are
intrinsically evil in their nature, and none which do not present in their
inward depths the reflection of divine purity,” _Ib._ p. 56. Going still
further, they claim that there is no existing “source of positive evil,”
“no principle of this nature in the human spirit,” and that consequently
“there can be no evil designs to emanate from such a source,” _Ib._ p. 60.
These assertions are put forth authoritatively; for the “Elements of
Spiritual Philosophy” are attested by witnesses to be “written by Spirits
of the Sixth Circle, R. P. Ambler, Medium.” And if they are met by the
declarations written by those who spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost, they reply: “The Christian who deifies his Bible is as much an
idolater as the heathen who burns his incense before his household image.
It is surely attributing to the book what the Pagan attributes to his
image.”—_Shekinah, April No._, p. 251. Christianity, they denominate,
“learned scepticism, baptized in the name of Jesus,” &c., _Ib._, p. 301.
Thus are they warring against the word of God, and placing themselves in
direct conflict with the Almighty.
This warfare is not only avowed to be against the God of the Bible, but is
recognized by themselves as _the last great conflict __ previous to the
millennium_. They regard this subject as “the great question of the age,
which is destined to convulse and divide Protestantism, and around which
all other religious controversies must necessarily revolve.”—_Davis’
Review of Bushnell_, page 3. The millennium which is to be thus ushered
in, they regard as a period when “every one that desires will be able to
hold direct intercourse and conversation with the spirit
world.”—_Spiritual Tel., Vol. 1, No. 1._ Says Davis: “The thunders of a
stupendous reformation are soon to issue from the now open mouth of the
Protestant church. The supernatural faith,” _i.e._ a belief in the
authenticity of Scripture, “will be shaken, as a reed in the tempest. New
channels will be formed for the inflowing of new truths, and then a
long-promised era will steal upon the religious and political
world.”—_Review of Bushnell_, p. 187.
In another place he says: “You may be assured of the truth of this
_approaching crisis_. The world must recognize it, because it will be
accompanied with _war_; for politics are inseparably connected, all over
the world, with religious systems. Religion will develop reason; but
politics will impel the masses to _unsheath the sword, and to stain the
bosom of Nature with blood_! Friends of progress! be not discouraged; for
the FINAL CRISIS must come; _then the strange interregnum_,” _Ib._ p. 217.
“Protestantism as now constructed will first decay; because it is to be
divided into two,—the smallest party will go back into Catholicism; the
other will go forward into Rationalism. And then, after a succession of
eventful years, a political revolution will hurl the Catholic
superstructure to the earth, and the prismatic bow of promise will span
the heavens. The children of earth will then be comparatively free and
happy! for the _millennial_ epoch will have arrived; and there will be
something like a realization of peace on earth, and good will toward all
men!” _Ib._ p. 221.
Such are their delusive hopes, while setting themselves against the Lord,
and against his Anointed. The Bible teaches that multitudes will be
deceived by them, and, if it were possible, some of the elect; and hence:
The Admonition.
“Behold, I come like a thief. Happy is he who watcheth, and
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.”
Rev. 16:15.
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat,” 2 Pet. 3:10. The Saviour said to his disciples:
“Watch, therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come,” Matt.
24:42. Says Paul: “Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so
cometh as a thief in the night; for when they shall say, peace and safety,
then sudden destruction cometh, ... and they shall not escape; but ye,
brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a
thief,” 1 Thess. 5:1-6.
Thus will the day of the Lord come, as a thief, on those who are careless
and indifferent to its approach; but it will not thus overtake those who
watch, and keep their garments. Because so many will be deceived by the
strange performances of the spirits of demons, and their miracles so
delude the multitude, Christ’s coming will be to them sudden and
unexpected. Therefore the greater necessity for watchfulness. While this
is a predicted means for lulling the world to sleep, it is given to the
Christian as an indication of the near coming of Christ, whose advent
synchronizes with the outpouring of the seventh vial. The blessing
pronounced on those who watch, is an intimation that the people of God
will be expecting Christ’s advent, while others will be taken by surprise:
“unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin
unto salvation,” Heb. 9:28. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness, and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this
present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing
of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” Titus 2:11-13.
Those who keep their garments, are those who have not “defiled” them with
sin, (3:4); they will walk with Christ in white, being worthy; “for the
fine linen” in which they are to be arrayed “is the righteousness of
saints,” 19:8. To be destitute of this, is to be unclothed; and hence the
Saviour says: “I counsel thee to buy of me ... white raiment, that thou
mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear,”
3:18. The intimation is clear, that to be deceived by the unclean spirits,
is to lose those robes of righteousness, and to be found naked at Christ’s
appearing.
The Success of the Spirits.
“And they gathered them into a place called in Hebrew Armageddon.”
Rev. 16:16.
Before the coming of the Lord, and as a preparation for that event, the
nations are to be thus gathered. Armageddon is the name of a valley at the
foot of Mount Megiddo, famous for its bloody slaughters. It fitly
symbolizes the final gathering of the nations. The enemies of God will
marshal for the final conflict. The powers of darkness will fancy
themselves on the verge of victory; and then will be poured out:
The Seventh Vial.
“And the seventh poured out his bowl on the air; and there came a
loud voice from the temple [of heaven], from the throne, saying,
It is done! And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders;
and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were
on the earth, so mighty and so great an earthquake. And the great
city became three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and
great Babylon was remembered before God, to give to her the cup of
the wine of his furious wrath. And every island fled, and the
mountains were no more. And vast hail, weighing a talent, fell
from heaven on men; and men reviled God because of the plague of
the hail; for the plague thereof was exceedingly great.” Rev.
16:17-21.
The atmosphere is not limited, like a river, or portion of the earth, to a
given locality, but encircles the globe. Consequently the effect of the
vial poured out on the air, would be universal, and not local like the
effects of the previous vials. The air is the region of storms. These
symbolize the expression of conflicting opinions, and violent outbursts of
passion; which may be the commencement of that “great battle,” for the
preparation of which the unclean spirits went forth under the sixth vial,
to gather the people, and which terminates by the slaying of the remnant
with the sword of the Lord, 19:21.
An earthquake is a symbol of a political revolution. As this is to be
greater than all preceding ones, it must extend to all nations. It is
during the earthquake, that the cities fall and the mountains and islands
flee away. This commotion evidently synchronizes with the “time of
trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same
time,” when God’s “people shall be delivered, every one that shall be
found written in the book,” Dan. 12:1.
“It is done,” is a declaration indicating the completion of the work
symbolized. It marks the termination of the events of the seventh vial,
which are described in the verses following:
“The great city” is “Babylon,” (14:8); which “reigneth over the kings of
the earth,” (17:8); and which John had seen sitting “upon many waters,”
17:1. This was doubtless seen when he saw the waters of the symbolic
Euphrates being dried up, 16:12. Babylon, being a symbol of the Roman
hierarchy, its triple division indicates a like division of the church of
Rome, not geographical, but under different leaders, previous to its
destruction.
“The cities of the nations,” must symbolize other hierarchies, analogous
to that of Rome, of which there are the Greek church, in Russia and
Greece, the Arminian and Syrian churches, and other corrupt nationalized
establishments. All such will become disconnected, like Babylon, with the
governments by which they are sustained.
“Great Babylon” then comes into remembrance to drink the cup of the wine
of the fierceness of God’s wrath. Because her sins have reached unto
heaven, “God hath remembered her iniquities,” 18:5. This synchronizes with
her destruction, symbolized in Rev. 18:8-23. As the Papacy continues till
Christ’s coming (Dan. 7:21, and 2 Thess. 2:3-8), this epoch must
synchronize with that event, when he comes to receive his chosen ones.
With the destruction of Babylon, occurs the subversion of all national
authority. As ecclesiastical hierarchies are symbolized by cities, the
“mountains” and “islands” on which they are situated must symbolize the
larger and smaller governments; and their removal from their places, their
subversion in the great moral “earthquake” which is to overwhelm them.
This synchronizes with the sixth seal, when they are all “removed out of
their places,” (6:14); and it leaves the inhabitants of earth in a state
of anarchy. It is at this time that the kings and great men of the earth
become aware that the great day of God’s wrath is come, 6:15-17. With this
time of trouble, comes the deliverance of God’s people, (Dan. 12:1); who
shall be caught up together “to meet the Lord in the air,” 1 Thess. 4:17.
To them the Lord has said, “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by
night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that
walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day. A
thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but
it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and
see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my
refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation,” Ps. 91:5-9.
The removal of the saints leaves the wicked exposed to the vengeance of
God’s wrath, of which a terrific hail-storm on their defenceless heads, is
an expressive symbol. The Lord said, by Isaiah: “Judgment also will I lay
to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with
hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through,
then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it
shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by
night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. For the
bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering
narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. For the Lord shall rise up
as in Mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he
may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange
act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for
I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption even determined upon
the whole earth,” Isa. 28:17-22.
This must synchronize with the final conflict, (symbolized in Rev.
19:19-21): also with the casting of the vine of the earth into the
wine-press of God’s wrath (14:19), and terminates the battle of
“Armageddon,”—the “battle of that great day of God Almighty,” 16:14.
The Judgment of the Harlot.
“And one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls, came and
talked with me, saying, Come here; I will show thee the judgment
of the great harlot who sitteth on many waters; with whom the
kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her
fornication.” Rev. 17:1, 2.
The Roman hierarchy had been frequently referred to in the preceding
visions; but an institution, so interwoven with the history of the
nations, required a more full and minute symbolization.
The subject of this vision is announced to the revelator, by one of the
angels who had the seven vials;—very probably, the seventh. The harlot is
identified as one “that sitteth upon many waters.” Ancient Babylon was
thus addressed: “O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in
treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness,” Jer.
51:13. She is also described as “The well-favored _harlot_, the mistress
of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families
through her witchcrafts,” Nahum 3:4. Therefore the harlot whose judgment
is to be more minutely shown, is the city of the previous vision, which
received the cup of the wine of God’s wrath (16:19), and which probably
was shown to John on the waters of the Euphrates, (16:12); for the
reference indicates that she had been thus previously exhibited,—the
waters on which she was seated, being the people, nations, &c., which
sustained and defended her idolatries, 17:15. In the vision now to be
shown John, the Roman hierarchy is symbolized by Babylon; but it is first
exhibited as:
A Woman on a Scarlet-Colored Beast.
“And he carried me away in spirit into a desert: and I saw a woman
seated on a crimson-colored wild beast, full of names of reviling,
having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in
purple and crimson, and decked with gold and precious stones and
pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and
the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead a name was
written, A SECRET: BABYLON, THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS
AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken
with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses
of Jesus; and when I saw her I wondered greatly.” Rev. 17:3-6.
“And the angel said to me, Why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee
the secret of the woman, and of the wild beast that carrieth her,
which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. The wild beast which
thou didst see, was, and is not, and will ascend out of the abyss,
and go into destruction; and those who dwell on the earth will
wonder, (whose names were not written in the book of life from the
foundation of the world,) as they behold the wild beast that was
and is not, and will be. And here is the mind having wisdom. The
seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth, and
they are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is and the other is
not yet come; and when he cometh he must remain a little while.
And the wild beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth,
and is of the seven, and goeth into destruction. And the ten horns
which thou didst see are ten kings, who have not yet received a
kingdom; but they receive power as kings, one hour, with the wild
beast. These have one mind, and will give their power and strength
to the wild beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb
will overcome them; for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings;
and those with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” Rev.
17:7-14.
“And he saith to me, The waters which thou didst see, where the
harlot sitteth, are peoples, and crowds, and nations, and tongues.
And the ten horns which thou didst see, and the wild beast, these
will hate the harlot, and will make her desolate and naked, and
will eat her flesh, and burn her up with fire. For God hath put it
into their hearts to perform his purpose, and to agree, and give
their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God shall be
fulfilled. And the woman whom thou didst see is the great city,
which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Rev. 17:15-18.
That the woman and city symbolize the same, is shown by the declaration
that she is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth,
v. 18. She is also thus indicated by the name of “Babylon,” on her
forehead, and the golden cup in her hand: “Babylon hath been a golden cup
in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have
drunken of her wine; therefore are the nations mad,” Jer. 51:7. In like
manner has the church of Rome intoxicated the nations.
“The scarlet-colored beast” on which the woman is seated, is evidently the
same beast that John saw “rise out of the sea, having seven heads, and ten
horns,” 13:1. The Roman empire had been symbolized by “a great red
dragon,” which also had seven heads and ten horns. In that vision, crowns
were on the heads of the beast, (12:3); which indicated that Rome, during
the period thus represented, existed under the forms of government
symbolized by the heads. These heads, the angel affirms, are the seven
mountains on which the woman sitteth, (v. 9); and also that they are seven
kings (v. 10), or forms of government. Mountains also symbolize
governments, (16:20); and as the heads and mountains are the same, they
must alike symbolize the seven forms of government under which Rome
existed previous to its subversion by the northern barbarians,—viz.: 1,
the kingly; 2, consular; 3, dictatorial; 4, decemviral; 5, tribunitial; 6,
pagan-imperial; and 7, Christian-imperial. At the time of the explanation
of this vision to John, the “five” first-named forms had passed away; or,
as the angel says, had “fallen,” v. 10. One then was:—Rome then existed
under its pagan-imperial, or sixth head. The other, the
Christian-imperial, had not then come; but after it came, and had
continued for a time, the Roman empire was subverted by the irruptions of
northern barbarians. Thus “the beast was;” and then, was not for a season.
But afterwards it emerged again from the sea (13:1), under an “eight”
form, which was of the previous seven, 17:11. When it reäppears, its
crowns are not upon its heads, but encircle its horns, (13:1); indicating
that those governments have the ascendency, which are symbolized by the
“ten horns;” and which, according to the angel, are “ten kings,” which had
not received their kingdom at the time of the vision, v. 12. These were to
be kings in “one,” or the same hour with the beast, and must therefore be
contemporary kingdoms, while the forms symbolized by the heads, are
evidently successive. They constitute the government of Rome, in its
eighth, or decem-regal form; and symbolize the ten kingdoms which arose
after and out of the subversion of imperial Rome. Under this form, the
beast goes into perdition, (v. 11):—they continue under various
combinations, till the end of the world, when they will war with and be
overcome by the Lamb (v. 14), in the great battle of Armageddon, 19:19-21.
The ten contemporary kingdoms have one mind, (v. 13): they perpetuate the
kingdom of the beast, by adopting similar laws, pursuing the same line of
policy, and assuming the same powers that the empire exercised.
The “names of blasphemy” which cover the beast, symbolize its arrogating
the right to dictate in matters of faith and religious worship, and to
punish those who dissent from its creed. The Roman hierarchy was supported
by legal enactments against heretics in all of the ten kingdoms. Those who
dissented from the church were delivered over to the power of the civil
arm, which punished by imprisonment, confiscation of goods, bodily
torture, and death. The exercise of such power, was a blasphemous
usurpation of the prerogatives of Christ, and an assumption of authority
over the legislation of God.
On this beast the woman is seated. As its rider, she guides it, and is
sustained by it. She is its directing power; and while she is thus seated,
there is no reference to crowns encircling either heads or horns. All rule
for a time is subservient to her control. Thus were the ten kingdoms
obedient to the Roman hierarchy,—sustaining, and being controlled by it.
She crowned their kings, and dethroned them at her pleasure. The religion
of the church was enforced by the sword of the state; and thus did the
kings of the earth commit fornication with her,—the idolatries of the
church being sanctioned by them.
The superb attire of the woman, and the costly gems with which she is
decked, denote the wealth, luxury, and regal splendor of the hierarchy
which she symbolizes. The cup, and its abominations in her hand, denote
the false doctrines with which she would seduce the nations. Her names
describe her nature, and identify her with Babylon; and her intoxication
with blood, indicates her blood-thirsty, persecuting character, and the
delight with which she would exult over the slaughter of the saints.
The Roman hierarchy was not, however, _always_ to retain her supremacy
over the nations. She was in due time to _fall_ from the position
symbolized by the woman seated on the beast; and the kings of the earth
were to hate and burn with fire, her whom they had recognized as their
mistress, and to whose control they had submitted. The governments which
have sustained her pretensions, were to cast her off contemptuously. This
has been in progress of fulfilment from the days of Martin Luther, since
which her control of the ten kingdoms has been only limited and partial.
Many of her ecclesiastical estates have been confiscated, and she has been
deprived of her prerogatives in many countries. There may, perhaps, be
hereafter a more complete fulfilment of this prediction. It is symbolized
in the following chapter, by:
The Fall of Babylon.
“And after this, I saw another angel descending from heaven,
having great power; and the earth was enlightened by his glory.
And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, She is fallen: Babylon
the great is fallen, and is become a dwelling of demons, and a
prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and
hateful bird, for all the nations have drunk of the wine of the
fury of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed
fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become
rich through the abundance of her luxury.” Rev. 18:1-3.
This announcement of the fall of the city, synchronizes with the same
symbolization in the 14th chapter: “And there followed another angel,
saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made
all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” 14:8. The
angel, proclaiming her fall, doubtless symbolizes a body of men, who shall
give utterance to corresponding declarations.
The _epoch_ of this utterance is shown by the identity of this angel with
that of Rev. 10:1-3. They thus correspond: They both descend from heaven:
the one is a mighty angel, and the other has great power; the one is
enveloped with a robe of cloud, his head is arched with the rainbow, his
face is like the sun, and his feet like fire, and he stands on both earth
and sea; the other is so glorified, and occupies a position so
conspicuous, that the earth is enlightened with his glory; and the one
cries “with a loud voice as when a lion roareth,” while the other cries
“mighty with a strong voice.” Thus their position, manner and
conspicuousness, are alike. What was uttered by the angel of the tenth
chapter, is not revealed; but the fall of Babylon being announced in the
eighteenth, it follows that it was the subject of the angel’s utterance in
the tenth.
As the messenger of the tenth chapter appears subsequent to the sixth, and
before the seventh trumpet; and as, after this epoch, there were to be
prophesyings “_again_, before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and
kings” (10:11), it follows that the _time_ then symbolized must be at an
epoch _anterior_ to the end of the world. A corresponding reason—namely,
the command to come out of Babylon, and the fulfilment of her plagues and
sorrows, which are to intervene between the cry of the angel announcing
her fall and the time of her actual destruction—proves that the mighty
angel of the 18th of Revelation must also be at an _epoch_ having a
considerable period between it and the end.
It follows, that when John saw the angel of the eighteenth chapter, and
“the earth was lightened with his glory,” it did not symbolize a _literal_
but a _moral_ light,—_the light of truth_. And as the enlightening of the
earth by its promulgation, pre-supposes a previous state of corresponding
moral _darkness_, it must, as in the tenth chapter, symbolize an _epoch_,
prominent in the history of the world, as a time when the _darkness_ of
ignorance, error and superstition, began rapidly to disappear before the
spread of the _light_ of truth and knowledge.
These considerations point to the epoch of the REFORMATION, when the
midnight _darkness_ of the _dark ages_ began to be scattered before the
uprising and onward progress of truth and knowledge. Then appeared a body
of religious teachers, aided by the newly discovered art of printing, who
so brought the Scriptures out from their obscurity, opposed the
pretensions of the Papal hierarchy, and, by the clear teachings of the
word, so secured the spread of gospel light and liberty, that they might
appropriately be symbolized by an angel coming down from heaven, and
enlightening the earth with his glory. The descent from heaven would
symbolize the heavenly origin of the doctrines promulgated. His mighty
power, and the strong voice with which he proclaimed his cry, would
symbolize the greatness and earnestness of the movement, and the mighty
results to be effected by it. This symbolization, twice given, could only
be fulfilled by some great and mighty movement, like the Reformation.
The fall of Babylon is distinct from and anterior to its destruction, and
must correspond with the fall of the woman from her position on the
beast;—she is no longer to be the director of, and to be sustained by, the
civil power. The cry of the angel, announcing her fall, as Mr. Elliot
remarks, seems to be anticipative, and not retrospective. The
denunciations of the Papacy by the reformers were of a character to fulfil
this symbolization.
The year 1300, during the pontificate of Boniface VIII., may be regarded
as marking the highest eminence to which the Papal power ever attained.
From this period the dominion of the Roman Pontiffs appeared to be
gradually undermined. Twenty-four years after this date, John Wickliffe
was born, who, together with his followers, made more vigorous attacks
upon Babylon itself. Some of these declared Rome to be mystical Babylon,
and the Pope and church there to be Antichrist. These heralds announced
the fall of mystical Babylon, as the ancient prophets had done that of
literal Babylon, long before the event.—Jer. 51:7, 8. Antichrist and
Babylon are identified in prophecy. In 1518, Luther first suspected their
application to the Papacy; and, writing to his friend Link, on sending him
a copy of the acts just published of the conference at Augsburg, he says:
“My pen is ready to give birth to things much greater. _I know not myself
whence these thoughts come to me._ I will send you what I write, that you
may see if I have well conjectured in believing that the _Antichrist_ of
whom St. Paul speaks now reigns in the court of Rome.”
At first, Luther and his companions sought only the reformation of that
church. They had no idea of dissolving their own connection with it. But
when the thunders of the Vatican were hurled at them, and they found
themselves excommunicated as heretics, they came to the conclusion that
the church of Rome was _the Babylon of the Apocalypse_. Immediately upon
this conviction, they began to cry, “Babylon is fallen!”
In 1520 appeared a famous book, by Luther, on the “_Babylonish Captivity
of the Church_,” in which he attacked Rome with great skill and courage.
In Switzerland and England the reformers considered themselves as
fulfilling this message of the Apocalyptic angel. Elliot says, “They
_seized on this very prophecy for application; and, for the first time_,
upon grounds of evidence sound and tenable, concluded on the fact of
progress having been made up to it, in the evolution of the great mundane
drama, and on their own chronological place being already far advanced
under the sixth trumpet, and in near expectancy of the seventh trumpet, of
the Apocalyptic prophecy.”
These denunciations against Mystic Babylon, and protestations against all
her idolatrous ceremonies and superstitious appendages, were given, by the
great body of the reformers, within the very bounds of her empire. They
resulted in her loss of power, and of control over the princes of Europe.
In 1526, the other monarchs becoming jealous of the power of Charles V.,
Emperor of Germany, “Pope Clement VII. placed himself at the head of a
league of the principal states of Italy against him; but their
ill-directed efforts were productive of new misfortunes. Rome was taken by
storm, by the troops of the constable, sacked, and the Pope himself made
prisoner. Charles V. publicly disavowed the proceedings of the constable,
went into mourning with his court, and carried his hypocrisy so far as to
order prayers for the deliverance of the Pope. On restoring the holy
father to liberty, he demanded a ransom of four hundred thousand crowns of
gold, but was satisfied with a quarter of that sum.”—_Ency. Am._, v. 3. p.
76.
All the Protestant princes of Germany denied the assumptions of the Pope;
and the powers of western and northern Europe, one after another, denied
their allegiance to him. In 1798, Pius VI. was taken prisoner by the
French, under Gen. Berthier, and died in exile. When Berthier entered
Rome, many of the cardinals “fled from the city on the wings of terror;”
but those who remained “were disposed still to uphold the authority of the
Pontiff.” Finally, however, “with melancholy voice, they pronounced their
absolute renunciation of the temporal government.”—_Life of Pius VI._ His
successor resumed his position. But in 1848 Pius IX. fled from his own
subjects, and was only restored by French arms. Thus gradually the
Babylonish _woman_ became unseated, and fell from her position on the
beast; and, instead of guiding and directing the civil power, now only
exists by sufferance. As a city, also, her supremacy was gone. Being no
longer the mistress of the nations, or the ruling city, the Papal See is
in the condition of ancient Babylon when becoming a dependency of the
Medes and Persians.
After the fall of ancient Babylon, it became gradually more and more
deserted, until there was a literal fulfilment of the words of Isaiah:
“Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full
of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance
there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate
houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces,” Isa. 13:21, 22. In like
manner the apocalyptic Babylon, after her fall, and the withdrawal of
Protestants from her communion, was to become the receptacle of
corresponding spirits. Her members were to be more impious than before,
and were to adhere more closely than ever to her idolatrous practices. The
contrast between these and true Christians would also be more apparent
from the separation which succeeds her fall, in obedience to:
The Voice From Heaven.
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her,
my people, that ye partake not of her sins, and that ye receive
not of her plagues, for her sins have reached to heaven, and God
hath remembered her iniquities! Reward her even as she rendered to
you, and double to her according to her works, in the cup which
she hath poured out, pour out double to her. By as much as she
hath glorified herself, and lived luxuriously, so much torment and
mourning give her; for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and
am not a widow, and shall see no mourning. On this account, her
plagues will come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and
she will be burned up with fire; for strong is the Lord God, who
judgeth her.”—Rev. 18:4-8.
So long as the true character of the apostate church was unperceived, she
would contain many good, as well as a multitude of bad members. The voice
from heaven, indicates an epoch when there should be a widely extended and
marked separation between these two classes. Till the time of that
separation should be indicated, the children of God would be justified in
continuing members of her communion; but not subsequently. The condition
of Babylon, at the time of her fall, indicates that the separation must
take place in near connection with that event; and the cry must
synchronize with that of the third angel in Rev. 14:9,—which symbolized a
body of men who should insist on such a separation from the Papacy as that
here symbolized.
After the discovery that the church of Rome was the Babylon of the
Apocalypse, the reformers began to call on the people of God to desert her
communion; and the formation of the reformed churches was the consequence.
This was preached wherever the Reformation extended, and has been
continued to the present time. The Protestant churches have proclaimed
connection with Romanism, an obstacle to salvation; and have called on its
Christian members to come out from her abominations. Even the name
“Protestant,” was given because of their protestation against the
corruptions of the Papal See.
After the fall of ancient Babylon, and before her destruction, the people
were, in like manner, commanded to forsake her. Said Jeremiah: “Flee out
of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in
her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; he will render
unto her a recompense. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for
her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have
healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every
one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is
lifted up even to the skies,” Jer. 51:6, 8, 9. And Isaiah said: “Go ye
forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing
declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The
Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob,” Isa. 48:20. “Depart ye, depart ye,
go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of
her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord,” Isa. 52:11.
Sins reaching to heaven, indicate great wickedness. Thus God said to
Jonah: “Go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their
wickedness is come up before me,” Jonah 1:2. And he said of old Babylon:
“Her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies,”
Jer. 51:9.
The Destruction of Babylon.
“And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and
lived luxuriously with her, will weep and wail for her, when they
see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off through the fear
of her torment, saying, Woe! woe! that great city, Babylon, that
mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come! And the
merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her; for no one
buyeth their merchandise any more; the merchandise of gold, and
silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and
purple, and silk, and crimson, and all thine wood, and all kinds
of vessels of ivory, and all kinds of vessels of most precious
wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and
fragrant ointment, and incense, and myrrh, and frankincense, and
wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep,
and horses, and chariots, and bodies, and souls of men. And the
autumnal fruit of thine appetite’s desire is departed from thee,
and all things dainty and sumptuous are destroyed from thee, and
thou wilt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things,
who were enriched by her, will stand afar off, through the fear of
her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe! woe! that great
city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and crimson, and
adorned with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! for in one
hour such great wealth is destroyed. And every pilot, and every
one sailing to any place, and sailors, and as many as trade by
sea, stood afar off, and cried, when they saw the smoke of her
burning, saying, What city is like the great city? And they cast
dust on their heads, and cried out, weeping and mourning, saying,
Woe! woe! the great city by which all who had ships on the sea,
were made rich through her precious merchandise! for in one hour
she is desolated.” Rev. 18:9-20.
“Rejoice over her, O heaven, and ye saints and apostles and
prophets; for God hath avenged you on her!” Rev. 18:20.
“And a strong angel took up a stone like a great mill-stone, and
cast it into the sea, saying, Thus violently, will Babylon, the
great city, be cast down, and be no more at all. And the voice of
harpers, and musicians, and pipers, and trumpeters, will be heard
no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of any art, will be
found any more in thee; and the sound of a mill-stone will be
heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a lamp will shine
no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and the
bride will be heard no more at all in thee; for thy merchants were
the nobles of the earth; for by thy sorcery all nations were
deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of
saints, and of all those slain on the earth.” Rev. 18:21-24.
The punishment of Babylon is proportioned to her wickedness, and is to be
inflicted partially by the kings of the earth, and partially by other
agencies. The kings were to hate, and burn her with fire, (17:16); and
were also, when they should see the smoke of her burnings, to bewail and
lament for her, 18:9. The former passage indicates their agency in her
impoverishment, and has been fulfilled in the confiscation of her property
in France and England, the spoliation of churches and religious houses,
wherever the arms of Napoleon extended; the dethronement of the Pope, by
Gen. Berthier, in 1798; the refusal of some of the powers to permit her to
nominate, within their limits, the candidates for ecclesiastical
preferment, &c. She is thus made to feel her widowhood,—her divorce from
the secular arm,—and has mourned the loss of her most devoted children,
who have forsaken her communion.
Her final destruction is, however, to be _entire_. She is totally to
disappear, like the sinking of a millstone in the sea. She is to be
_utterly_ burned with fire; but the lamentation of the kings over her
burning, indicates that her destruction is to be completed by other
instrumentality than theirs. Probably the multitude are to be incensed
against her, and will so manifest their hatred that the governments will
neither join in it, nor attempt to resist it, for fear that the same
torment will be inflicted on them, 18:10. But her existence is terminated
by the brightness of Christ’s coming, 2 Thess. 2:8. Her destruction
precedes that of the kings of the earth, who mourn her end. The merchants
of the earth, the captains, sailors, &c., symbolize those who bear a
relation to the hierarchy, analogous to that sustained by such to a great
commercial emporium. They are those who have the control of her
preferments, benefices and revenues,—who traffic in her indulgences, and
thereby become themselves enriched. And these articles of traffic are
symbolized by the merchandise which, after her destruction, no man would
buy.
The commerce of this ecclesiastical city, has been immense,—particularly
in indulgences. The sale of these was reduced to a system, says D’Aubigné,
by “the celebrated and scandalous Tariff of Indulgences,” which went
through more than forty editions. The least delicate ears would be
offended by an enumeration of all the horrors it contains. Incest, if not
detected, was to cost five groats; and six, if it was known. There was a
stated price for murder, infanticide, adultery, perjury, burglary, &c.
Polygamy cost six ducats; sacrilege and perjury, nine; murder, eight; and
witchcraft, two ducats.
The penances of various kinds which were imposed as a punishment for sin,
might also be compounded for money.
Tetzel, one of Rome’s travelling merchants, told the people of Germany
that for “a quarter of a florin” they might “receive letters of
indulgence,” by means of which they might “introduce into paradise a
divine and immortal soul, without its running any risk.” _Hist. Ref._, pp.
56, 242.
He also said “Indulgences avail not only for the living but for the dead.
With twelve groats you can deliver your father from purgatory.” “At the
very instant,” said he, “that the money rattles at the bottom of the
chest, the soul escapes from purgatory, and flies, liberated to heaven.”
This is but a specimen of her vile traffic.
Responding to the command, are heard the voices of much people in heaven,
Rejoicing Over Babylon’s Destruction.
“And after this, I heard a loud voice of a mighty crowd in heaven,
saying, Praise ye Jehovah! The salvation, and the glory, and the
power of our God! For true and righteous are his judgments; for he
hath judged the great harlot, who corrupted the earth with her
fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her
hand! And again they said, Praise ye Jehovah! And her smoke
ascendeth for ever and ever. And the twenty-four elders and the
four living beings fell down and worshipped God, who sat on the
throne, saying, So be it! Praise ye Jehovah!” Rev. 19:1-4.
Daniel, in vision, saw the same persecuting power symbolized by a “Little
Horn,” having “eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great
things;” and he beheld, “and the same Horn made war with the saints, and
prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was
given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints
possessed the kingdom,” Dan. 7:8, 21, 22. And Paul testified of “that
Wicked” who was to be revealed, that he was the “Man of Sin,” “whom the
Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with
the brightness of his coming,” 2 Thess. 2:3-8. The destruction of that
which was thus symbolized and predicted, must, consequently, be at the
epoch of Christ’s second coming and of the establishment of the kingdom of
God.
It is also at the epoch anticipated by “the souls of them that were slain
for the word of God and for the testimony which they held,” who, from
under the altar, on the opening of the “fifth seal,” “cried with a loud
voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” 6:9, 10. The epoch
which they anticipated not having then arrived, “white robes were given
unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest
yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also, and their
brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled”
(6:11),—_i.e._, till their number should be filled up. As the destruction
of that hierarchy, in which “was found the blood of prophets and of saints
and of all that were slain upon the earth” (18:24), had just been
symbolized (in the 18th chap.), and as these rejoicings are because God
“hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her
fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand”
(19:2), it follows that the epoch here symbolized is that to which the
saints were to wait, and that they are now to be crowned with their
reward.
As the destruction of Babylon is a little anterior to that of the beast
and false prophet (19:20), and is to be destroyed by the brightness of
Christ’s coming (2 Thess. 2:8), at a time when the kingdom is to be given
to the saints of the Most High (Dan. 7:22), it explains how it is that the
kingdom is set up in the days of the kings symbolized by the divided toes
of Nebuchadnezzar’s image: symbolic of the same as the horns of the beast
in Dan. 7:7, 24, and Rev. 17:3, 12, 16; for “in the days of these kings
shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed,
and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever,” Dan.
2:44.
The kingdom is therefore commenced previous to the descent of the Lord to
the earth, by the saints being caught up to meet him in the air. “For the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel and the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;
then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with
the Lord,” 1 Thess. 4:16, 17.
This epoch, then, is that of the sounding of the seventh trumpet; for “in
the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound,
the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants
the prophets,” 10:7. This mystery Paul thus explains: “Now this I say,
brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither
doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery: We
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, _at the last trump_: for the trumpet shall sound, and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed,” 1 Cor.
15:50-54. This “saying” was thus written by Isaiah,—“He will swallow up
death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all
faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the
earth; for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo,
this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the
Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his
salvation,” Isa. 25:8, 9. It follows, then, that the voices heard in
heaven, shouting “Alleluia,” and ascribing “salvation, and glory, and
honor, and power, unto the Lord our God” (v. 1), synchronize with those
heard when “the seventh angel sounded: and there were great voices in
heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our
Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.—And the
four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon
their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God
Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to
thee thy great power, and hast reigned: And the nations were angry, and
thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged,
and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to
the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest
destroy them which destroy the earth,” Rev. 11:15-18.
The time of the dead being come that they should be judged, and the saints
rewarded, is another evidence that this epoch is that of the second advent
and kingdom of Christ, “who shall judge the quick and the dead at his
appearing and kingdom,” 2 Tim. 4:1. Consequently it must synchronize with
that of:
The Marriage of the Lamb.
“And a voice came from the throne saying, Praise our God, all ye
his servants, and ye that fear him, both the small and the great!
And I heard a voice like that of a great crowd, and like the voice
of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying,
Praise ye Jehovah! for the Lord God Almighty reigneth. Let us
rejoice and exult, and give glory up him: for the marriage of the
Lamb hath come, and his wife hath prepared herself! And it was
granted to her to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: (for
the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.) And he saith
to me, Write, Happy are those called to the marriage-supper of the
Lamb. And he saith to me, These are the true words of God. And I
fell before his feet to worship him. And he saith to me, See thou
do it not: I am thy fellow-servant and one of thy brethren, who
have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Rev. 19:5-10.
The marriage of the Lamb is at the epoch when “the kingdoms of this world
are to become our Lord’s and his Christ’s”—when the Lord God Almighty
takes to himself his great power and reigns, 11:15, 17. Therefore, in
connection, are heard the mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia; for the
Lord God Omnipotent reigneth,” 9:16. This scripture, then, corresponds
with that in Matt. 24:30, 31, when “they shall see the Son of Man coming
in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he shall send his
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” For,
“when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with
him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall
be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another as a
shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats—the one on his right hand and
the other on his left,” Matt. 25:31, 32. Those on his right, we learn from
1 Cor. 15:51, and 1 Thess. 4:16, 17, are the elect, gathered by the angels
from all parts under heaven, who are caught up to meet the Lord in the
air—and those on the left are consequently the living wicked, who are to
be slain by the sword which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lamb,
19:21.
_The wife_ who “hath made herself ready,” is shown by the foregoing
scriptures to be, undoubtedly, the church triumphant—the redeemed, who
have been raised out from among the dead, and the living saints, caught up
together to meet the Lord in the air; to welcome him in his coming to
reign. These constitute the bride, the Lamb’s wife; for as “the husband is
the head of the wife,” even so “Christ is the head of the church,” Eph.
5:23. He “loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he
might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle,
or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish,” Eph.
5:25-27. This accords with God’s ancient promises to his people. Thus
Isaiah saith: “Thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name,
and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel: the Lord of the whole earth shall
he be called,” Isa. 54:5. Also Hosea: “And it shall be at that day, saith
the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi,” my husband; “and shalt call me no
more Baali,” my Lord. “And I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness,
and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even
betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord,” Hos.
2:16, 19. Thus is the church “espoused to one husband,” to be presented
“as a chaste virgin to Christ,” 2 Cor. 11:2.
The epoch of this presentation being here symbolized, it synchronizes with
that part of the parable of the “ten virgins which took their lamps and
went forth to meet the Bridegroom,” when, the Bridegroom having come,
“they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was
shut”—those left without, afterwards crying in vain for admittance, Matt.
25:10. The wife had been made ready by its having been “granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white—[_mar._ ‘bright’]; for
the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints,” 19:8. Such were the
“white robes” given to those who cried from under the altar (6:11), and
who afterwards, at an epoch synchronizing with the marriage of the Lamb,
appeared, “a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations,
and kindreds, and people, and tongues,” who “stood before the throne, and
before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, and
cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb,” 7:9, 10. These were they of whom one of
the elders asked, saying, “What are these which are arrayed in white
robes? and whence came they?” and who was answered: “These are they which
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
God, 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 God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes,” 7:13-17. These had complied with the condition to the
promise: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment;
and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will
confess his name before the Father and before his holy angels,” 3:5.
“These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were
redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb,”
14:4.
“Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb,”
19:9. Truly are they blessed; for “they shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat,” 7:16.
They attain the promised blessing: “Blessed and holy is he that hath part
in the first resurrection,” 20:6. “And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed
away,” 21:4. So entranced was the apocalyptic seer at these symbols of the
glorified redeemed, that he fell at his feet to worship the angel who
showed him these things. But his fellow servant shrank back from the
reception of homage, and pointed to God as the only object of adoration.
The union of the saints to Christ in the clouds of heaven being
symbolized, they receive the gracious welcome: “Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world,” Matt. 25:34. But first it is necessary to redeem the “purchased
possession” (Eph. 1:14), to reconquer the revolted province, which, since
the fall, has been subject to “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4), the
“prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), to rescue it from the
dominion of the usurper, and deliver it from its present mis-rule “up to
God the Father” (1 Cor. 15:24), who will bestow it on One who is worthy to
wear its crown. For when Daniel saw that “the judgment was set and the
books were opened,” he also “saw in the night visions, and, behold, one
like the Son of man came in the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient
of days, and they brought him near before him; and there was given him
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and
languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed,” Dan. 7:10, 13, 14. He comes, then, to dispossess the usurper,
and to take possession of his kingdom. The next representation, then,
symbolizes the coming of:
The King and his Armies.
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse: and he who
sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he
judgeth and maketh war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on
his head were many diadems; and he had a name written which no one
knew except himself. And he was clothed with a garment dipped in
blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies in
heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white
and clean. And from his mouth goeth forth a sharp sword, that he
may smite the nations with it: and he will rule them with a rod of
iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the furious wrath of God,
the Almighty. And he hath on his garment and on his thigh a name
written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Rev. 19:11-16.
According to the significance of symbolic language, Christ is here
represented as coming personally. The heavens open and he appears in
resplendent majesty, in accordance with the predictions respecting his
second advent. When the clouds of heaven had received the ascending
Saviour, the shining ones who stood by said to the gazing disciples, “This
same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven,” Acts 1:11. “And they shall see
the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,”
Matt. 24:30. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him,
and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail
because of him,” Rev. 1:7.
The white horse of the King, and those of his armies, are symbols of the
pomp and grandeur of their descent, and show that they will triumph in
victory.
The names ascribed to the descending Monarch are applicable only to
Christ. He was “the Faithful and True Witness” who commanded John to write
“to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans,” (3:14); for he who
commanded John to “write in a book and send it unto the seven churches” of
Asia (1:11), was the One whom John saw “in the midst of the seven
candlesticks, like unto the Son of man” (1:13), and who announced himself
as “the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
which is, and which was, and which is to come—the Almighty,” 1:8. “The
Word of God,” was the “Word” that was “in the beginning,” that “was with
God,” and that “was God,” the same that was “in the beginning with God,”
and which “was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,”
John 1:1-14. Jesus is “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the
world,” (_Ib._, 29); and “the Lamb” “is Lord of lords and King of kings,”
17:14. It is “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first
begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth,” (1:5);
and he alone is possessed of that incomprehensible “Name” which no man
knoweth, and which he hath promised to write on “him that overcometh,”
3:12.
That the visible and personal coming of Christ, and not any providential
interposition, is here symbolized, is self-evident. For, while no created
object can adequately symbolize Him, it would derogate from the dignity of
his character and position to be a symbol of some inferior object. In all
mere providential interpositions, foreshown by symbolic imagery, the
predicted events are represented by corresponding acts of symbolic agents.
War between nations is symbolized by beasts, representatives of the
nations, contending with each other. (See Dan. 8th chap.) Pestilence and
famine are symbolized by analogous results, and not by Christ’s appearing.
When, therefore, he is seen coming in person, it must symbolize his
personal advent.
His eyes “as a flame of fire,” show his identity with the one “like unto
the Son of man” in the “midst of the seven candlesticks” (1:13), the
author of the message to “the church in Thyatira;” which “things saith the
Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet like
unto fine brass,” 2:18.
His “many crowns” are symbols of his sovereignty. Rome undivided and
mistress of the world, when symbolized by the seven-headed and ten-horned
dragon, is represented with the crowns on the heads, which were the seven
successive kinds of government by which its sovereignty was enforced,
12:3, and 17:9, 10. But when its imperial had given place to its
decem-regal form, and it is to be shown under the government of ten
contemporaneous kingdoms, “the crowns,” the symbols of sovereignty, are
represented as encircling the “horns” of the beast, 13:1. So, when “the
King of kings” cometh, to take to himself his great power, and to reign,
and “the kingdoms of this world are become those of our Lord and of his
Christ” (11:15, 17), He, “the head of all principality and power” (Col.
2:10), at whose name “every knee should bow” (Phil. 2:9), is shown the
wearer of “many crowns.”
“Come, then, and, added to thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, the crown of all the Earth,
Thou who alone art worthy! It was thine
By ancient covenant, ere nature’s birth;
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since,
And overpaid its value with thy blood.”
_Cowper’s Task._
His “vesture dipped in blood” is symbolic of his coming to tread “the
wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (19:15), when he
shall “smite the nations,” and “rule them with a rod of iron,” (_Ib._)
Thus Isaiah prophesied: “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed
garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in
the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to
save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him
that treadeth in the wine-fat? I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of
the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger,
and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my
garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in
my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was
none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine
own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will
tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I
will bring down their strength to the earth,” Isa. 63:1-6.
The “armies” which follow him, symbolize the attending saints and angels
who will accompany his advent. They are all “clothed in fine linen, white
and clean,” which constituted the wedding garments of those who were
called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, and which was worn by those who
had washed their robes, and made them white in his blood, (7:14); “for the
fine linen is the righteousness of saints,” 19:8. The righteous being
caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17), “when
Christ, who is our life shall appear,” they will “appear with him in
glory,” (Col. 3:4); so that “the Lord my God shall come and all the saints
with thee,” Zech. 14:5. “Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of
these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to
execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them
of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all
their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him,” Jude
14, 15.
Not only saints, but angels also, will attend his coming. For “when the
Son of man shall come in his glory,” there will be “all the holy angels
with him,” Matt. 25:31. “He cometh in the glory of his Father, with the
holy angels,” Mark 8:38. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels,” 2 Thess. 1:7.
The “sharp sword,” going out of his mouth, must be a symbol of his word.
He speaks, and it is done, Psa. 33:9. “For the word of God is quick and
powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is
a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” Heb. 4:12. As “he
shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of
his lips shall he slay the wicked,” (Isa. 11:4); and as “the Lord shall
consume” “that Wicked” one “with the spirit of his mouth” (2 Thess. 2:8),
it follows that the sword proceeding out of his mouth is a symbol of the
words he shall speak for their destruction; for with it he smites the
nations, 19:15. And this he does when he comes to “rule them with a rod of
iron” (_Ib._) and tread them in “the wine-press” of the wrath of God. This
brings us to the object of his coming, which is to “judge and make war,”
19:11.
And first, “To judge.” This proves, that Christ’s second advent is here
symbolized; for, as before quoted, he is to “judge the quick and the dead
at his appearing and kingdom,” 2 Tim. 4:1. This is at the sounding of the
seventh trumpet, for then is “the time of the dead that they should be
judged,” 11:18. “With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove
with equity for the meek of the earth,” when he “shall smite the earth
with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay
the wicked,” Isa. 11:4. “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be
glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful,
and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice
before the Lord: for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the
world with righteousness, and the people with truth,” Psa. 96:11-13. He
cometh “to execute judgment upon all,” Jude 15.
To “make war.” That this is another object of his coming, is shown by:
The Final Conflict.
“And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud
voice, saying to all the birds flying in the midst of heaven,
Come! gather yourselves to the great supper of God; that ye may
eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders, and the flesh
of the mighty, and the flesh of the horses, and of those who sit
on them, and the flesh of all, both free and bond, both small and
great. And I saw the wild beast, and the kings of the earth, and
their armies, gathered to make war with him, who sat on the horse,
and with his army. And the wild beast was taken, and with him the
false prophet, who wrought signs in his sight, with which he had
deceived those who received the mark of the wild beast, and those
who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake
of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were slain with the
sword of him who sat on the horse, which sword goeth forth from
his mouth; and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” Rev.
19:17-21.
The contest being between the Lord and his armies on the one part, and the
wicked nations on the other, the angel seen standing in the sun and
performing an important act in connection with the Lord’s army, must
represent one of his attending angels; for the acts to be performed are to
be by their instrumentality: “In the end of this world, the Son of man
shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all
things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a
furnace of fire,” Matt. 13:40-42.
His crying to the fowls of heaven to come and sup on the bodies of the
slain, is indicative of the certainty of victory and of the entire
overthrow of those who war against the Lamb. As birds gather on fields of
slaughter to feast on the slain, so a cry to “all the fowls of heaven” is
expressive of the extent and thoroughness of the destruction to be
inflicted. It is the same cry which is made in Ezekiel, 39:17, when the
armies of Gog are slain on the mountains of Israel. The beast and the
kings of the earth symbolize the various governments in the world. The
“beast” is that which had seven heads and ten horns (13:1, and 17:3), and
was a symbol of Rome in its decem-regal form. It was said of this beast,
it shall “go into perdition,” (17:8); so that under some manifestation, it
must continue till the end of the world: the earth being “reserved unto
fire against the day of judgement, and perdition of ungodly men,” 2 Pet.
3:7. As only in its divided form, the Roman empire continues till then,
the beast is here significant of the divisions represented by its ten
horns—the governments of modern Europe. “These shall war with the Lamb,
and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords and King of
kings; and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful,”
17:14.
“The false prophet,” which is taken with the beast, is described as the
one “that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that
had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image,” v.
20. This identifies him as the two-horned beast of Rev. 13. (13:11-17).
The two-horned beast being a representative of the Eastern Roman empire,
when that was subverted by the Turks it became the seat of the false
prophet,—the Mahometan hierarchy.
The kings of the earth must be the remaining governments which are not
represented by those two. By their subsequently warring with the Lamb, it
follows that the previous resurrection and translation of the saints does
not produce a cessation of all government. Those events may not be
apparent to all eyes; or they may serve only to madden the unbelieving,
and to make them more desperate in their infidelity.
They gather their armies to war against the Lamb. They resist his
authority. They will not have Him to reign over them. They are instigated
to oppose him by “unclean spirits like frogs” (16:13), which are the
spirits of devils [_demons_, understood by the Jews to be spirits of the
wicked dead] working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth
and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of
God Almighty, _Ib._ v. 14. This is when Christ is to “come as a thief;”
and they are to be gathered “into a place called in the Hebrew tongue
Armageddon,” 16:15, 16. This was the name of the valley at the foot of
Mount Megiddo (Judg. 5:19), which was famous as a valley of slaughter. In
it Jehu fought against Ahaziah and Joram, and slew both the kings of
Israel and Judah, 2 Kings 9:27. It was afterwards memorable for the death
of king Josiah, when Pharaoh-necho fought against him, (2 Kings 23:29); so
that the mourning as “in the valley of Megiddon,” became a proverbial
expression in Israel for great mourning, Zech. 12:11,12. It is therefore
significantly applied to the final battle.
Thus do “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take
counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed;” but “He that
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.”
For the decree has gone forth: “I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou
shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a
potter’s vessel,” Ps. 2:2-9. In this victory the saints, also, have a
part; for it is written: “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto
the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them
with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to
shivers: even as I received of my Father,” 2:26, 27.
As thus predicted, in this final conflict the nations are smitten, 19:15.
Those symbolized by the beast and false prophet are cast alive into the
burning flame; _i.e._, the individuals constituting the bodies of those
beasts are cast therein: their governments cease when taken by the Lamb
and his armies. This is in accordance with what Daniel saw, who “beheld,
even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the
burning flame,” Dan. 7:11.
“The remnant” also are slain; so that there are none left alive on the
earth of all the wicked. Thus Daniel interpreted to king Nebuchadnezzar
his dream: “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which
smote the image [representing the governments of earth] upon his feet,
that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron,
the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together,
and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind
carried them away, that no place was found for them,” Dan. 2:34, 35. It
will “break in pieces, and consume all these kingdoms” (_Ib._), according
to the prediction: “The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall
perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted,” Isa. 60:12. “And this
shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people which
have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall consume away while they
stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,
and their tongues shall consume away in their mouth,” Zech. 14:12. “For,
behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud,
yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh
shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them
neither root nor branch,” Mal. 4:1. “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,
cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he
shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it,” Isa. 13:9. Thus will the
Saviour come “in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God,
and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the
glory of his power, when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be
admired in all them that believe in that day,” (2 Thess. 1:8-10): saying
to the nations on his left, “Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” Matt. 25:41. Thus will he
“gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do
iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be
wailing and gnashing of teeth,” _Ib._, 13:41, 42. The destruction of all
the wicked from the earth is followed by:
The Binding of Satan.
“And I saw an angel descending from heaven, having the key of the
abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon, the
old serpent, who is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand
years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a
seal over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till
the thousand years were completed; and after that, he must be
loosed a short time.” Rev. 20:1-3.
The angel descending from heaven, must be a representative of his own
order; for at this epoch there are no other orders of beings for him to be
a representative of. He therefore symbolizes the angels who are
commissioned to “gather out of his kingdom all things that offend,” Matt.
13:41.
The “key,” “pit,” and “chain,” symbolize the instruments of restraint and
confinement to which Satan is to be subjected; and his being bound and
confined symbolize his restraint.
The “Dragon” is expressly called “that old serpent, which is the Devil and
Satan.” With the appendages of heads and horns—symbols of political
sovereignty—he is used in Rev. 12:3, as a symbol of the Roman civil power,
under Pagan rule; and in verse 7, when divested of political insignia, of
the pagan hierarchy. But now, as the beast, another symbol of Roman civil
rule, has been cast into “the lake of fire and brimstone,” and the
“remnant” are “slain with the sword” (19:21), there are no analogous
powers remaining on earth for him to be a representative of, and
consequently he is here represented as a symbol of himself.
Of his identity there can be no question: He is “that Old Serpent,” who,
being “more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
made” (Gen. 3:1), “beguiled Eve through his subtlety,” 2 Cor. 11:3. He is
also the Devil, by whom our Saviour was tempted in the wilderness, (Matt.
4:1-12); and the Satan, whose working is “with all power and signs and
lying wonders,” 2 Thess. 2:9. He is our adversary the devil, who, “as a
roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour,” (1 Pet. 5:8); and
against whom we are to guard continually, “lest Satan should get an
advantage of us,” 2 Cor. 2:11.
Coëval with the fall, the promise was given that his head should in due
time be bruised, and he is not ignorant of his doom; for when the legion
saw the Saviour about to dispossess them of the two men among the tombs,
they recognized him as “the Son of God,” and cried, “Art thou come hither
to torment us before _the time_?” (Matt. 8:29); “and they besought him,
that he would not command them to go out into the _deep_,”—the _pit_, or
_abyss_, Luke 8:31. The epoch when he should be there confined, is also
shown by Isaiah to be when “the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,” when “the earth also shall
disclose her blood, and no more cover her slain,” Isa. 26:21. For “in that
day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish
leviathan [the dragon], the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked
serpent,” _Ib._ 27:1. This synchronizes with the slaying of the remnant
with the sword, when Satan is bound and cast into the _abyss_, to continue
there a thousand years.
His being bound and confined must symbolize his dejection to a position
where he can have no possible influence over the nations during the time
he is bound. It can be no _partial_ restraint, as some theologians hold;
for that is contrary to the conditions of the symbolic representation. His
restraint is full, complete, and entire. Consequently his influence, for
the time being, will have entirely ceased. The period of his confinement,
therefore, cannot be one of partial exemption from sin; but the living
will be perfectly free from all its contagious influences. He is to
deceive the nations _no more_, till the thousand years shall be fulfilled.
“The nations” who are freed from his influences, and also those whom he is
subsequently to deceive, are not, necessarily, organized political bodies,
under civil rulers, as they now exist. The original term, εθνος, is
defined by Robinson to be “a multitude, people, race, belonging and living
together.” At this epoch, the national organizations having disappeared,
and the people constituting them being translated or slain, the only
nations remaining will be “the nations of them which are saved” (21:24),
over whom the influence of Satan will have ceased forever; and those
constituting “the rest of the dead” (20:5), who will not live again till
the end of the thousand years—at the very time when Satan is to be loosed
from his prison to go out to deceive them, 20:7, 8.
The Cleansing of the Earth.
There is, in the Apocalypse, no symbolic representation of the act of the
cleansing of the earth, yet various scriptures show that it is at the
epoch of the second advent, and of the establishment of the kingdom of
God. If so, it follows the destruction of the wicked and the binding of
Satan, while the raised and transfigured saints—constituting “the
bride”—are still with the Lord in the clouds of heaven (19:7-9), where
they were caught up to meet him in the air, 1 Thess. 4:17.
A restoration of the earth, in connection with the first resurrection, is
in accordance with the testimony of scripture, and was the opinion of the
ancients. We read in Isaiah: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new
earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind,” Isa.
65:17.
“As for my opinion,” saith R. Menasse, a Jewish Rabbi, “I think that after
six thousand years, the world shall be destroyed, upon one certain day, or
in one hour; that the arches of heaven shall make a stand as immovable;
that there will be no more generation or corruption; and that all things
by the resurrection shall be renovated, and return to a better condition.”
He also assures us that “this, without doubt, is the opinion of the most
learned Aben Ezra,” who looked for it in the new earth of Isa. 65:17.
“Man shall be restored in that time, namely, in the days of the Messiah,
to that state in which he was before the first man sinned.”—_R. Moses
Nachmanides in Duet. § 45._
“Although all things were created perfect, yet when the first man sinned,
they were corrupted, and will not again return to their congruous state
till PHEREZ (_i.e._, the MESSIAH) comes.” “There are six things which
shall be restored to their primitive state, viz.: the splendor of man, his
life, the height of his stature, the fruits of the earth, the fruits of
the trees, and the luminaries, (the sun, moon, and stars.)”—_R. Berakyah_,
in the _name of R. Samuel—Bereshith Rabba, Fol. 11, Col. 3_.
“In that time (_i.e._, of the Messiah) the whole work of creation shall be
changed for the better, and shall return into its perfect and pure state,
as it was in the time of the first man, before he had sinned.”—_R. Becai,
in Shilcan Orba, Fol. 9, Col. 4, p. 360._
“Theopompus, who flourished three hundred and forty years B. C., relates
that the Persian Magi taught that the present state of things would
continue 6000 years; after which _hades_, or death, would be destroyed,
and men would live happy,” &c. “The opinion of the ancient Jews, on this
head, may be gathered from the statement of one of their Rabbins, who
said, ‘The world endures 6000 years, and in the thousand, or millennium
that follows, the enemies of God would be destroyed.’ It was in like
manner a tradition of the house of Elias, a holy man, who lived about B.
C. 200, that the world was to endure 6000 years, and that the righteous,
whom God should raise up, would not be turned again into dust. That, by
this resurrection, he meant a resurrection prior to the millennium, is
manifest from what follows.... It is worthy of remark, that the two
ancient authors, whose words have just been quoted, speak of the seventh
millennium as ‘that day’—the day in which God will renew the world, and in
which he alone shall be exalted.”—_Dis. on Mill. by Bishop Russell, Prof.
Eccl. Hist. in the Scottish Epis. Ch._
“The Divine institution of a sabbatical, or seventh year’s solemnity among
the Jews, has a plain typical reference to the seventh chiliad, or
millenary of the world, according to the well known tradition among the
Jewish doctors, adopted by many in every age of the Christian Church, that
this world will attain to its limit at the end of 6000 years.”—_Mede._
“The observance of the Sabbath is essential to the faith; for such only as
observe the Sabbath confess that the earth will be renewed: because He who
created it out of nothing will renew it.”—_David Kimchi, on Isa. 55:5,
quoted by Mede._
“In as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years it is
perfected; for if the day of the Lord be as it were a 1000 years, and in
six days those things that are made were finished, it is manifest that the
perfecting of those things is in the 6000th year, when anti-Christ,
reigning 1260 years, shall have wasted all things in the world, ... then
shall the Lord come from heaven in the clouds, with the glory of his
Father.” _Irenæus, Bish. of Lyons, A. D. 178._
“In six thousand years, the Lord will bring all things to an end, ... when
iniquity shall be no more, all things being renewed by the Lord.”—_Epst.
of Barnabas, sec. 14, 15._
“Let philosophers know, who number thousands of years, ages since the
beginning of the world, that the 6000th year is not yet concluded or
ended. But that number being fulfilled, of necessity there must be an end,
and the state of human things must be transformed into that which is
better.”—_Lactantius, B. of Divine Inst., A. D. 310._
Thomas Burnet (Theory of Earth, Lon. 1697) states “that it was the
received opinion of the primitive church from the days of the apostles to
the council of Nice, that this earth would continue 6000 years, when the
resurrection of the just, and conflagration of the earth, would usher in
the millennium and reign of Christ on earth.”
“God’s blessing the Sabbath day, and resting on it from all his works, was
a type of that glorious rest that the saints shall have when the six days
of this world are fully ended.... He will finish the toil and travail of
his saints, with the burden of the beasts and the curse of the ground, and
bring all into rest for a thousand years.... None ever saw this world as
it was in its first creation but Adam and his wife, neither will any see
it until the manifestation of the children of God; _i.e._, until the
redemption or resurrection of the saints.”—_John Bunyan’s Works, vol. 6,
pp. 301, 329._
“I expect with Paul a reparation of _all_ the evils caused by sin, for
which he represents the creatures as groaning and travailing.”—_John
Calvin, in his __“__Institutes.__”_
The reformation of the earth “never was, nor yet shall be, till the
righteous King and Judge appear for the restoration of all things.”—_John
Knox._
“The groans of nature in this nether world,
Which heaven has heard for ages, have an end.
Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung,
Whose fire was kindled at the prophet’s lamp,
The time of rest, the promised Sabbath, comes:
Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh
Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course
Over a sinful world; and what remains
Of this tempestuous state of human things,
Is merely as the working of a sea
Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest;
For HE, whose car the winds are, and the clouds
The dust that waits upon his sultry march,
When sin hath moved him, and his wrath is hot,
Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend,
Propitious, in his chariot paved with love;
And what his storms have blasted and defaced
For man’s _revolt_, shall with a smile _repair_.”
_Cowper’s Task._
The above are only a few of many extracts which might be made, showing the
faith of the church in past ages; but which are of no weight, only as they
are in accordance with the harmony of scriptural testimony.
When man sinned, this earth was cursed for his sake. The Lord said to him,
“Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the
days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee,
and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou
taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” Gen. 3:17-19.
Such was the curse to which the whole creation was subjected because man
sinned. “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but
by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,” Rom. 8:20. And this
hope is for a removal of the curse thus inflicted, and a restoration of
all things to their original condition.
As the earth was subjected to the curse at the time when man was made
subject to death, the removal of the former would naturally be expected at
the epoch of the fulfillment of the promise to the just: “I will ransom
them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death I
will be thy plagues; O grave I will be thy destruction,” Hos. 13:14. And
thus Paul testifies: “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth
for the manifestation of the sons of God, ... Because the creature itself,
also, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but
ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we
ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body,” Rom. 8:19, 21-23.
The removal of the curse removes also its consequences. Thus it is
promised: “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of
the briar shall come up the myrtle tree,” Isa. 55:13. “The inhabitant
shall not say I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven
their iniquity,” Isa. 33:24. “He will swallow up death in victory; and the
Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his
people will he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken
it,” Isa. 25:8. “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,” Isa.
65:17. “And there shall be no more curse,” Rev. 22:3. “For the Lord shall
comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her
wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and
gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody,”
Isa. 51:3.
The removal of the curse is called “the regeneration” (Matt. 19:28), “the
times of refreshing,” and of “restitution;” which Peter places at the
advent of Christ: “whom the heavens must receive until the times of
restitution(10) of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all
his holy prophets since the world began,” Acts 3:21. He also places it at
“the perdition of ungodly men,” which must synchronize with the epoch when
the beast “goeth into perdition” (17:11), and “the remnant” are “slain
with the sword,” (19:21); “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them
that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
2 Thess. 1:7, 8. Says Peter: “The heavens and the earth, which are now, by
the same word [‘whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with
water, perished’ v.6] are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the
day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men.... But the day of the Lord
will come, as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the earth also; and the works that are therein shall be burned up....
Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” _i.e._, “righteous
persons”—_Horsely_, 2 Pet. 3:7-13. This harmonizes with the day that
“cometh that shall burn as an oven,” when “all the proud, yea, and all
that do wickedly” shall be burned up, and become “ashes under the soles”
of those on whom “shall the Sun of righteousness arise,” (Mal. 4:1-3);
which must be the time intervening between the resurrection of the
righteous and that of the wicked. This also harmonizes with the testimony
of our Saviour, that when, “in the end of this world,” He “shall send
forth his angels and gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and
them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; ...
_then_ shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father,” Matt. 13:40-43.
The earth being cleansed, and all things made new, it will have been
prepared for the “dwelling” of “righteous persons” (2 Pet. 3:13),
who,—having “put on incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:53), and been “caught up ...
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17), where,
constituting “the bride,” “the Lamb’s wife,” they were “called unto the
marriage supper of the Lamb” (19:7-9),—will descend from heaven to take
possession. Thus John writes, that one of the angels said to him: “Come
hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me
away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and he showed me that
great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,” 21:9,
10.
“Lo, what a glorious sight appears
To our believing eyes:
The earth and seas are passed away,
And the old rolling skies!
From the third heaven where God resides,
That holy, happy place,
The New Jerusalem comes down
Adorned with shining grace.
Attending angels shout for joy,
And the bright armies sing,
Mortals, behold the sacred seat
Of your descending King.”—_Watts._
The Kingdom given to the Saints at the resurrection of the just.
“And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given
for them: and I saw the persons of those beheaded for the
testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and those, who had
not worshipped the wild beast, nor his image, nor had received the
mark on their forehead, or on their hand; and they lived and
reigned with Christ the thousand years. But the rest of the dead
lived not until the thousand years were completed. This is the
first resurrection. Happy and holy is he, who bath part in the
first resurrection: on such, the second death hath no power, but
they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him
a thousand years!” Rev. 20:4-6.
“Thrones” are symbols of power. As the saints are to reign with Christ on
the renewed earth, in obedience to the invitation: “Come ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world,” (Matt. 25:34); their being inducted into the kingdom is symbolized
by their being seated on thrones. Thus they sing in the “new song,”
addressed to Christ: “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy
blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast
made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth,”
5:9, 10. In the first chapter, also, all who ascribe praises to “Him that
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,” also add: “and
hath made us kings and priests unto God, and his Father,” 1:5, 6.
All the saints being thus exalted to kingly and priestly dignity,
symbolizes the exalted rank they are to hold in the new creation—the
symbols of their station being taken from the most exalted offices known
on earth. Thus God said to ancient Israel: “Ye shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests, and a holy nation,” (Ex. 19:6); and the Christian church is
addressed as “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
peculiar people,” 1 Pet. 2:9.
The time when the saints shall reign on the earth is in connection with
the destruction of the “little horn” of Daniel’s “fourth beast,” which, as
he saw, “made war with the saints and prevailed against them, until the
Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most
High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom,” Dan. 7:21,
22. “The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the
kingdom forever, even forever and ever,” _Ib._ v. 18. “And the kingdom and
dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him,” _Ib._ v.
27. “And they shall reign forever and ever,” 22:5. Thus the Saviour said:
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you
the kingdom,” Luke 12:32.
Those who receive the kingdom are symbolized by the souls of martyrs, &c.,
living again and reigning with Christ. The symbol includes, with the
martyred saints, those who had stood aloof from the worship of the beast
and his image, and those who had not received his mark; who are shown by a
parallel scripture to represent all who are redeemed to God “out of every
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” 5:9, 10. Some of these were
symbolized, under the fifth seal, as crying from under the altar in
anticipation of this day, 6:9. Now, with “their fellow servants,” they
receive their reward.
The souls of the departed living again, can only symbolize those who have
been subjected to death, and are again raised. Consequently they are the
subjects of a real resurrection. And this is shown by the explanation of
the symbol, which affirms that, “This is the first resurrection.”
It is denied by many that a literal resurrection is here taught; but in so
doing they deny the faith of the church in its best and purest ages. In
the first two centuries after Christ, there was not an individual, who
believed in any resurrection of the dead whose name or memory has survived
to the present time, who denied that the resurrection of the just is here
taught.
Eusebius, who opposed this view, quotes Papias, who he admits was a
disciple of St. John and a companion of Polycarp, as saying that “after
the resurrection of the dead the kingdom of Christ shall be established
corporeally on this earth.” And Jerome, another opposer, quotes from him
that “he had the apostles for his authors; and that he considered what
Andrew, what Peter said, what Philip, what Thomas said, and other
disciples of the Lord.”
Polycarp was another of John’s disciples; and Irenæus testifies in an
epistle to Florinus, that he had seen Polycarp, “who related his
conversation with John and others who had seen the Lord, and how he
related their sayings, and the things he had heard of them concerning the
Lord, both concerning his miracles and doctrine, as he had received them
from the Lord of life; all of which Polycarp related agreeable to the
scriptures.” Following such a teacher, Irenæus taught that at the
resurrection of the just, the meek should inherit the earth; and that then
would be fulfilled the promise which God made to Abraham.
Justin Martyr, born A. D. 89, says that, “A certain man _among us_, whose
name is John, being one of the twelve apostles of Christ, in that
Revelation which was shown him, prophesied that those who believe in our
Christ shall fulfil a thousand years at Jerusalem.” He affirms that
himself “and many others are of this mind”—“that Christ shall reign
personally on earth;” and that “all who were accounted orthodox so
believed.”
Tertullian, about A. D. 180, says it was a custom for Christians to pray
that they might have part in the first resurrection. And Cyprian, about
220, says that Christians “had a thirst for martyrdom that they might
obtain a better resurrection.”
Mosheim assures us that the opinion “that Christ was to come and reign
1000 years among men,” had, before the time of Origen, about the middle of
the 3d century, “met with no opposition.” And it is the testimony of
ecclesiastical historians, that the first who opposed it, seeing no way of
avoiding the meaning of the words in Rev. 20th, denied the authenticity of
the Apocalypse, and claimed that it was written by one Cerenthus, a
heretic, for the very purpose of sustaining what they called “his fiction
of the reign of Christ on earth.” This doctrine is not _now_ evaded in
this way, but by spiritualizing the language of the Apocalypse, and thus
finding a meaning in it which is not expressed by any of the admitted laws
of language. Theologians who thus reason make the first resurrection the
conversion of the world. But those who are affirmed to be raised, are
persons who have lived and are dead. If the resurrection is a mere
metaphor, then the martyrs must have metaphorically died, and must have
comprised only those who had been previously converted and were fallen
away. The rest of the dead must then be understood as persons morally
dead, which would be inconsistent with the idea of a converted world.
Those who were raised being those who were previously converted, they must
have been literally dead, and the only resurrection predicable of such is
a literal resurrection.
The Bible teaches such a resurrection of the righteous prior to that of
the wicked. Thus the Psalmist says of them: “Like sheep they are laid in
the grave; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion
over them in the morning.” But of himself he says: “But God will redeem my
soul from the power of the grave,” Psa. 49:14, 15. Of the wicked Isaiah
testifies: “They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they
shall not rise,” _i.e._ with the righteous; but to Zion he says: “Thy dead
men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and
sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and
the earth shall cast out her dead,” Isa. 26:14, 19. To the same import is
the prophecy of Daniel, respecting the time when Michael shall stand up,
and “thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written
in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some, [the awakened, shall be] to everlasting life, and some, [the
unawakened, shall be] to shame and everlasting contempt,” Dan. 12:1, 2.
Such, according to Prof. Bush, is the precise rendering of the original.
The New Testament also teaches a resurrection of the just, in distinction
from that of the wicked. Paul says, while all are to be made alive, that
it will be “every man in his own order,” or band—“Christ the first fruits;
afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming,” 1 Cor. 15:23. None
others are spoken of as being raised at that epoch. When the Lord descends
from heaven with a shout, at the trump of God, not the entire mass of the
dead, but “the dead in Christ shall rise first,” before the righteous
living are changed, 1 Thess. 4:16. In accordance with this priority in the
resurrection of the righteous, Paul teaches that the worthies who died in
faith “accepted not deliverance, that they might obtain _a better_
resurrection,” (Heb. 11:13); and himself, he says, counted all things loss
for Christ, “if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the
dead,” (Phil. 3:11); which is “the resurrection from among the dead”—it
being a resurrection to which some will not attain. Thus also the Saviour
taught: while “they that have done good shall come forth _at_ [as it is
literally] the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil at the
resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29), the two are not co-etaneous; for
the righteous shall be “recompensed at the resurrection _of the just_,”
Lu. 14:14. That must be the resurrection of which those are the subjects
who receive the kingdom; for “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God,” 1 Cor. 15:50. While “the children of this world marry and are
given in marriage,” “they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that
world, and the resurrection _from_ the dead, neither marry, nor are given
in marriage; neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the
angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the
resurrection,” Lu. 20:34-36.
The children of the resurrection thus include all who attain unto that
world, which, consequently, the wicked do not obtain, and of which the
righteous dead and the living saints are made equal subjects, according to
Paul’s “mystery:” “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed,” _i.e._, to the same incorruptible state to which the dead are
raised, (1 Cor. 15:50-54); so that all the righteous will alike “bear the
image of the heavenly” (v. 49) when they “shall be caught up together” (1
Thess. 4:16) “to meet the Lord in the air.”
The resurrection state is that to which the ancients looked for the
restoration of Israel.
Rabbi Eliezer the great, supposed to have lived just after the second
temple was built, applied Hosea 14:8 to the pious Jews, who seemed likely
to die without seeing the glory of Israel, saying: “As I live, saith
Jehovah, I will raise you up, in the resurrection of the dead; and I will
gather you with all Israel.”
The Sadducees are reported to have asked Rabbi Gamaliel, the preceptor of
Paul, whence he would prove that God would raise the dead, who quoted
Deut. 9:21: “Which land the Lord sware that he would give to your
_fathers_.” He argued, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had it not, and as God
cannot lie, that they must be raised from the dead to inherit it.
Rabbi Simai, though of later date, argues the same from Ex. 6:4, insisting
that the law asserts in this place the resurrection from the dead, when it
said: “And also I have established my covenant with them, to give them the
Canaan;” for, he adds, “it is not said to _you_, but to them.”
Mennasseh Ben Israel says: “It is plain that Abraham and the rest of the
patriarchs did not possess that land; it follows, therefore, that they
must be raised in order to enjoy the promised good, as otherwise the
promises of God would be vain and false.”—_De Resurrec. Mort., L. i., c.
1. § 4._
Rabbi Saahias Gaion, commenting on Dan. 12:2, says: “This is the
resuscitation of the dead Israel, whose lot is eternal life, and those who
shall not awake are the forsakers of Jehovah.”
“In the world to come,” says the Sahar, fol. 81, “the blessed God will
vivify the dead and raise them from their dust, so that they shall be no
more an earthly structure.”
Thus “Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should
after receive for an inheritance ... sojourned in the land of promise, as
in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles, with Isaac and Jacob, the
heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” Heb. 11:8-10. While he dwelt
in that land, God “gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to
set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give it to _him_ for a
possession, and to his seed after him,” Acts 7:5. This was also true of
all those “who died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,”—desiring “a
better country, that is, a heavenly” (Heb. 11:13-16), “not accepting
deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection” (v. 35), “God
having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not
be made perfect,” v. 40.
When the promises are thus made good to Israel, all who are of the faith
of Abraham will participate in the same promises. For “Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law ... that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.” “And if ye be Christ’s,
then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise,” Gal.
3:13, 14, 29. So the Saviour said to the Jews: “Many shall come from the
east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in
the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom [unregenerate Jews]
shall be cast into outer darkness,” Matt. 8:11, 12. And then, as the
Saviour said to the twelve: “Ye which have followed me, in the
regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye
also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel,”
Matt. 19:28.
“The rest of the dead,” who live not again till the thousand years are
ended, must be the wicked dead; for, the righteous being raised, no other
dead ones remain. They include all the wicked, who have died in all ages,
and “the remnant” who “are slain with the sword” (19:21), when the kingdom
is cleansed from all things that offend.
“The thousand years” to intervene between the two resurrections, are
regarded by some as a symbol of 360,000 years. There seems to be no
necessity for such an interpretation. When time is symbolized, it is
always proportioned to the duration of the other symbols used. Thus, in
Dan. 8th, when beasts symbolize kingdoms, it would have been incongruous
to have specified the duration of the vision in literal years; for beasts
do not continue during centuries, as the kingdoms symbolized by them have
done. But days are proportioned to years, as beasts are to kingdoms; so
that there is a fitness in symbolizing the years foreshadowed in that
vision, by 2300 days; between which measure of time and the duration of
the existence of beasts, there is a perfect congruity.
In the 4th of Daniel, where the cutting down of a tree is used to
symbolize the loss of the king’s reason, there is no such disproportion
between the duration of man’s existence and that of a tree, as there is
between the life of a beast and that of an empire. And therefore there is
no incongruity if the time specified is a symbol of literal time, _i.e._,
if a time is used to symbolize a year. In this case, the seven years could
not have been symbolized by seven days; for there is no marked
disproportion between the duration of the other symbols in connection, and
the things symbolized; and had days been used, days must have been
understood in the fulfilment.
There might be either 1000 years, or 360,000, between the first and second
resurrections, without conflicting with any other Scripture. But there is
no disproportion between the other symbols and the things symbolized,—the
living again of the martyrs in vision, and their actual resurrection; and
therefore the 1000 years need not, by any parallel usage or law of
language, be understood, to be other than a literal thousand.