There is no part of the Bible which has been the subject of so much
perversion, or on which the minds of the great mass of Christian
readers have been suffered to fall into such gross errors, as the
Apocalypse. This is the opinion of all the great exegetical theologians
of this age, who have examined the scope of the work most attentively;
and from the time of Martin Luther till this moment, the opinions of
the learned have for the most part been totally different from those
which have made up the popular sentiment,――none or few, caring to give
the world the benefit of the simple truth, which might be ill received
by those who loved darkness rather than light; and those who knew the
truth, have generally preferred to keep the quiet enjoyment of it to
themselves. This certainly is much to be regretted; for in consequence
of this culpable negligence of the duty of making religious knowledge
available for the good of the whole, this particular apostolic writing
has been the occasion of the most miserable and scandalous delusions
among the majority even of the more intelligent order of Bible
readers,――delusions, which, affecting no point whatever in creeds and
confessions of faith, those bulwarks of sects, have been suffered to
rage and spread their debasing error, without subjecting those who
thus indulged their foolish fancies, to the terrors of ecclesiastical
censure. The Revelation of John has, accordingly, for the last century
or two, been made a licensed subject for the indulgence of idle fancies,
and used as a grand storehouse for every “filthy dreamer” to draw
upon, for the scriptural prophetical supports of his particular
notions of “the signs of the times,” and for the warrant of his special
denunciations of divine wrath and coming ruin, against any system that
might happen to be particularly abominable in his religious eyes. Thus,
a most baseless delusion has been long suffered to pervade the minds
of common readers, respecting the general scope of the Apocalypse,
perverting the latter parts of it into a prophecy of the rise, triumph
and downfall of the Romish papal tyranny; while in respect to the
minor details, every schemer has been left to satisfy himself, as his
private fancy or sectarian zeal might direct him. Now, not only is all
this ranting trash directly opposed to the clear, natural and simple
explanations, given by those very persons among the earliest Christian
writers, who had John’s own private personal testimony as to his
real meaning, in the dark passages which have in modern times been
made the subject of such idle, fanciful interpretations; but they are
so palpably inconsistent both with the general scope and the minute
details of the writing itself, that even without the support of this
most incontrovertible evidence of the earliest Christian antiquity,
the falsehood of the idea of any anti-papal prophecy can be most
triumphantly and unanswerably settled; and this has been repeatedly
done, in every variety of manner, by the learned labors of all the
sagest of the _orthodox_ theologians of Germany, Holland, France and
England, for the last three hundred years. A most absurd notion seems
to be prevalent, that the idea of a rational historical interpretation
of the Apocalypse, is one of the wicked results of that most horrible
of abstract monsters, “_German neology_;” and the dreadful name of
Eichhorn is straightway referred to, as the source of this common
sense view. But Eichhorn and all those of the modern German schools
of theology, who have taken up this notion, so far from originating
the view or aspiring to claim it as their invention, were but quietly
following the standard authorities which had been steadily accumulating
on this point for sixteen hundred years; and instead of being the
result of _neo_logy or of anything _new_, it was as old as the time
of Irenaeus. The testimony of all the early writers on this point,
is uniform and explicit; and they all, without a solitary exception,
explain the great mass of the bold expressions in it, about coming
ruin on the enemies of the pure faith of Christ, as a distinct, direct
prophecy of the downfall of imperial ROME, as the great _heathen_
foe of the saints. There was among them no very minute account of
the manner in which the poetical details of the prophecy was to be
fulfilled; but the general meaning of the whole was considered to be
so marked, dated, and individualized, that to have denied this manifest
interpretation in their presence, must have seemed an absurdity not
less than to have denied the authentic history of past ages. Not all,
nor most of the Christian Fathers however, have noticed the design and
character of the Apocalypse, even among those of the western churches;
while the scepticism of the Greek and Syrian Fathers, after the third
century, about the authenticity of the work, has deprived the world of
the great advantage which their superior acquaintance with the original
language of the writing, with its peculiarly oriental style, allusions
and quotations, would have enabled them to afford in the faithful
interpretation of the predictions. From the very first, however, there
were difficulties among the different sects, about the allegorical and
literal interpretations of the expressions which referred to the final
triumph of the followers of Christ; some interpreting those passages
as describing an actual personal reign of Christ on earth, and a
real worldly triumph of his followers, during a _thousand years_,
all which was to happen shortly;――and from this notion of a Chiliasm,
or a Millennium, arose a peculiar sect of heretics, famous in early
ecclesiastical history, during the two first centuries, under the name
of _Chiliasts_ or ♦_Millenarians_,――the Greek or the Latin appellative
being used, according as the persons thus designated or those
designating them, were of eastern or western stock. Cerinthus and
his followers so far improved this worldly view of the subject, as to
inculcate the notion that the faithful, during that triumph, were to
be further rewarded, by the full fruition of all bodily and sensual
pleasures, and particularly that the whole thousand years were to be
passed in nuptial enjoyments. But these foolish vagaries soon passed
away, nor did they, even in the times when they prevailed, affect the
standard interpretation of the general historical relations of the
prophecy.
♦ “Millennarians” replaced with “Millenarians”
It was not until a late age of modern times, that any one pretended
to apply the denunciations of ruin, with which the Apocalypse abounds,
to any object but _heathen_, IMPERIAL Rome, or to the pagan system
generally, as personified or concentrated in the existence of that
city. During the middle ages, the Franciscans, an order of monks, fell
under the displeasure of the papal power; and being visited with the
censures of the head of the Romish church, retorted, by denouncing him
as an Anti-Christ, and directly set all their wits to work to annoy
him in various ways, by tongue and pen. In the course of this furious
controversy, some of them turned their attention to the prophecies
respecting Rome, which were found in the Apocalypse, then received
as an inspired book by all the adherents of the church of Rome; and
searching into the denunciations of ruin on the Babylon of the seven
hills, immediately saw by what a slight perversion of expressions, they
could apply all this dreadful language to their great foe. This they
did accordingly, with all the spite which had suggested it; and in
consequence of this beginning, the Apocalypse thenceforward became the
great storehouse of scriptural abuse of the Pope, to all who happened
to quarrel with him. This continued the fashion, down to the time
of the Reformation; but the bold Luther and his coadjutors, scorned
the thought of a scurrilous aid, drawn from such a source, and with
a noble honesty not only refused to adopt this construction, but even
did much to throw suspicion on the character of the book itself. Luther
however, had not the genius suited to minute historical and critical
observations; and his condemnation of it therefore, though showing
his own honest confidence in his mighty cause, to be too high to allow
him to use a dishonest aid, yet does not affect the results to which
a more deliberate examination has led those who were as honest as
he, and much better critics. This however, was the state in which
the early reformers left the interpretation of the Apocalypse. But
in later times, a set of spitefully zealous Protestants, headed by
Napier, Mede, and bishop Newton, took up the Revelation of John, as a
complete anticipative history of the triumphs, the cruelties and the
coming ruin of the Papal tyranny. These were followed by a servile
herd of commentators and sermonizers, who went on with all the
elaborate details of this interpretation, even to the precise meaning
of the teeth and tails of the prophetical locusts. These views were
occasionally varied by others tracing the whole history of the world in
these few chapters, and finding the conquests of the Huns, the Saracens,
the Turks, &c. all delineated with most amazing particularity.
But while these idle fancies were amusing the heads of men, who showed
more sense in other things, the great current of Biblical knowledge
had been flowing on very uniformly in the old course of rational
interpretation, and the genius of modern criticism had already been
doing much to perfect the explanation of passages on which the wisdom
of the Fathers had never pretended to throw light. Of all critics who
ever took up the Apocalypse in a rational way, none ever saw so clearly
its real force and application as HUGO GROTIUS; and to him belongs
the praise of having been the first of the moderns to apprehend and
expose the truth of this sublimest of apostolic records. This mighty
champion of Protestant evangelical theology, with that genius which was
so resplendent in all his illustrations of Divine things as well as of
human law, distinctly pointed out the _three_ grand divisions of the
prophetical plan of the work. “The visions as far as to the end of the
eleventh chapter, describe the affairs of the Jews; then, as far as to
the end of the twentieth chapter, the affairs of the Romans; and thence
to the end, the most flourishing state of the Christian church.” Later
theologians, following the great plan of explanation thus marked out,
have still farther perfected it, and penetrated still deeper into
the mysteries of the whole. They have shown that the two cities, Rome
and Jerusalem, whose fate constitutes the most considerable portions
of the Apocalypse, are mentioned only as the seats of two religions
whose fall is foretold; and that the third city, the New Jerusalem,
whose triumphant heavenly building is described in the end, after the
downfall of the former two, is the religion of Christ. Of these three
cities, the first is called Sodom; but it is easy to see that this name
of sin and ruin is only used to designate another devoted by the wrath
of God to a similar destruction. Indeed, the sacred writer himself
explains that this is only a metaphorical or spiritual use of the
term,――“which is _spiritually_ called Sodom and Egypt;”――and to set its
locality beyond all possibility of doubt, it is furthermore described
as the city “where also our Lord was crucified.” It is also called
the “Holy city,” and in it was the temple. Within, have been slain two
faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ; these are the two Jameses,――the
great apostolic proto-martyrs; James the son of Zebedee, killed by
Herod Agrippa, and James the brother of our Lord, the son of Alpheus,
killed by order of the high priest, in the reign of Nero, as described
in the lives of those apostles. The ruin of the city is therefore
sealed. The second described, is called Babylon; but that Chaldean city
had fallen to the dust of its plain, centuries before; and this city,
on the other hand, stood on _seven hills_, and it was, at the moment
when the apostle wrote, the seat of “the kingdom of the kingdoms of
the earth,” the capital of the nations of the world,――expressions which
distinctly mark it to be IMPERIAL ROME. The seven angels pour out the
seven vials of wrath on this Babylon, and the awful ruin of this mighty
city is completed.
To give repetition and variety to this grand view of the downfall of
these two dominant religions, and to present these grand objects of
the Apocalypse in new relations to futurity, which could not be fully
expressed under the original figures of the cities which were the
capital seats of each, they are each again presented under the poetical
image of a female, whose actions and features describe the fate of
these two systems, and their upholders. First, immediately after the
account of the city which is called Sodom, a female is described as
appearing in the heavens, in a most peculiar array of glory, clothed
in the sun’s rays, with the moon beneath her feet, and upon her head
a crown of _twelve_ stars. This woman, thus splendidly arrayed, and
exalted to the skies, represents the ancient covenant, crowned with
all the old and holy honors of the twelve tribes of Israel. A huge red
dragon (the image under which Daniel anciently represented idolatry)
rises in the heavens, sweeping away the third part of the stars, and
characterized by seven heads and ten horns, (thus identified with a
subsequent metaphor representing imperial Rome;)――he rages to devour
the offspring to which the woman is about to give existence. The child
is born destined to rule all nations with a rod of iron,――and is caught
up to the throne of God, while the mother flees from the rage of the
dragon into the wilderness, where she is to wander for ages, till
the time decreed by God for her return. Thus, when from the ancient
covenant had sprung forth the new revelation of truth in Jesus, it
was driven by the rage of heathenism from its seat of glory, to wander
in loneliness, unheeded save by God, till the far distant day of its
blissful re-union with its heavenly offspring, which is, under the
favor of God, advancing to a firm and lasting dominion over the nations.
Even in her retirement, she is followed by the persecutions of the
dragon, now cast down from higher glories; but his fury is lost,――she
is protected by the earth, (sheltered by the Parthian empire;) yet the
dragon still persecutes those of her children who believe in Christ,
and are yet within his power; (Jews and Christians persecuted in Rome,
by Nero and Domitian.)
Again, after the punishment and destruction of imperial Babylon have
been described, a second female appears, not in heaven, like the first,
but in an earthly wilderness, splendidly attired, but not with the
heavenly glories of the sun, moon and stars. Purple and scarlet robes
are her covering, marking an imperial honor; and gold, silver, and all
_earthly_ gems, adorn her,――showing only _worldly_ greatness. In her
hand is the golden cup of sins and abominations, and she is designated
beyond all possibility of mistake, by the words, “_Mystery, Babylon
the Great_.” This refers to the fact, that Rome had another name which
was kept a profound secret, known only to the priests, and on the
preservation of which religious “mystery,” the fortunes of the empire
were supposed to depend. The second name also identifies her with the
city before described as “Babylon.” She sits on a scarlet beast, with
seven heads and ten horns. The former are afterwards minutely explained,
by the apostle himself, in the same chapter, as the seven hills on
which she sits; they are also seven kings, that is, it would seem,
seven periods of empire, of which five are past, one now is, and one
brief one is yet to come, and the bloody beast itself――the religion
of heathenism――is another. The ten horns are the ten kings or sovrans
who never received any lasting dominion, but merely held the sway one
after another, a brief hour, with the beast, or spirit of heathenism.
These, in short, are the ten emperors of Rome before the days of the
Apocalypse;――Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho,
Vitellius, Vespasian and Titus. These had all reigned, each his hour,
giving his power to the support of heathenism, and thus warring against
the faith of the true believers. Still, though reigning over the
imperial city, they shall hate her, and make her desolate; strip her of
her costly attire, and burn her with fire. How well expressed here the
tyranny, of the worst of the Caesars, plundering the state, banishing
the citizens, and, in the case of Nero, “burning her with fire!”
Who can mistake the gorgeously awful picture? It is heathen, imperial
Rome, desolating and desolated, at that moment suffering under the
tyrannic sway of him whom the apostle cannot yet number with the gloomy
TEN, that have passed away to the tomb of ages gone. It is the mystic
Babylon, drunk with the blood of the faithful witnesses of Christ, and
triumphing in the agonies of his saints, “butchered to make a Roman
holiday!” No wonder that the amazement of the apostolic seer should
deepen into horror, and highten to indignation. Through her tyranny
his brethren had been slaughtered, or driven out from among men, like
beasts; and by that same tyranny he himself was now doomed to a lonely
exile from friends and apostolic duties, on that wild heap of barren
rocks. Well might he burst out in prophetic denunciation of her ruin,
and rejoice in the awful doom, which the angels of God sung over her;
and listen exultingly to the final wail over her distant fall, rolling
up from futurity, in the coming day of the Gothic and Hunnish ravagers,
when she should be “the desolator desolate, the victor overthrown.”
As there are three mystically named cities――Sodom, Babylon, and the
New Jerusalem; so there are three metaphoric females,――the star-crowned
woman in heaven, the bloody harlot on the beast in the wilderness, and
the bride, the Lamb’s wife. A peculiar fate befalls each of the three
pairs. The SPIRITUAL SODOM falls under a temporary ruin, trodden under
foot by the Gentiles, forty-two mystic months; and the star-crowned
daughter of Zion wanders desolate in the wilderness of the world, for
twelve hundred and sixty days, till the hand of her God shall restore
her to grace and glory. The GREAT BABYLON of the seven hills, falls
under a doom of far darker, and of irrevocable desolation,――like the
dashing roar of the sinking rock thrown into the sea, she is thrown
down, and shall be found no more at all. And such too, is the doom of
the fierce scarlet rider of the beast,――“Rejoice over her, O heaven!
and ye holy apostles and prophets! for God has avenged you on her.” But
beyond all this awful ruin appears a vision of contrasting, splendid
beauty.
“The first _two_ acts already past,
The _third_ shall close the drama with the day;――
Time’s noblest offspring is the last.”
The shouts of vindictive triumph over the dreadful downfall of the
bloody city, now soften and sweeten into the songs of joy and praise,
while the NEW JERUSALEM, the church of God and Christ, comes down from
the heavens in a solemn, glorious mass of living splendor, to bless
the earth with its holy presence. In this last great scene, also,
there is a female, the third of the mystic series; not like her of
the twelve stars, now wandering like a _widow_ disconsolate, in the
wilderness;――not like her of the jeweled, scarlet and purple robes,
cast down from her lofty seat, like an abandoned _harlot_, now desolate
in ashes, from which her smoke rises up forever and ever;――but it
is one, all holy, happy, pure, coming down stainless from the throne
of God,――a _bride_, crowned with the glory of God, adorned for her
husband,――the One slain from the foundation of the world. He through
the opening heavens, too, has come forth before her, the Word of God,
the Faithful and the True,――known by his bloody vesture, stained, not
in the gore of slaughtered victims, but in the pure blood poured forth
by himself, for the world, from its foundation. Yet now he rode forth
on his white horse, as a warrior-king, dealing judgment upon the world
with the sword of wrath,――with the sceptre of iron. Behind him rode the
armies of heaven,――the hallowed hosts of the chosen of God,――like their
leader, on white horses, but not like him, in crimson vesture; their
garments are white and clean; by a miracle of purification, they are
washed and made white in blood. This mighty leader, with these bright
armies, now returns from the conquests to which he rode forth from
heaven so gloriously. The kings and the hosts of the earth have arrayed
themselves in vain against him;――the mighty imperial monster, in all
the vastness of his wide dominion,――the false prophets of heathenism,
combining their vile deceptions with his power, are vanquished, crushed
with all their miserable slaves, whose flesh now fills and fattens
the eagles, the vultures, and the ravens. The spirit of heathenism
is crushed; the dragon, the monster of idolatry, is chained, and
sunk into the bottomless pit,――yet not for ever. After a course of
ages,――a mystic thousand years,――he slowly rises, and winding with
serpent cunning among the nations, he deceives them again; till at
last, lifting his head over the world, he gathers each idolatrous
and barbarous host together, from the whole breadth of the earth,
encompassing and assaulting the camp of the saints; but while they
hope for the ruin of the faithful, fire comes down from God, and
devours them. The accusing deceiver,――the genius of idolatry and
superstition,――is at last seized and bound again; but not for a mere
temporary imprisonment. With the spirit of deception and imposture, he
is cast into a sea of fire, where both are held in unchanging torment,
day and night, forever. But one last, awful scene remains; and that
is one, that in sublimity, and vastness, and overwhelming horror, as
far outgoes the highest effort of any genius of human poetry, as the
boundless expanse of the sky excels the mightiest work of man. “A great
white throne is fixed, and One sits on it, from whose face heaven and
earth flee away, and no place is found for them.” “The dead, small
and great, stand before God; they are judged and doomed, as they rise
from the sea and from the land,――from Hades, and from every place of
death.” Over all, rises the new heaven and the new earth, to which
now comes down the city of God,――the church of Christ,――into which the
victorious, the redeemed, and the faithful enter. The Conqueror and
his armies march into the bridal city of the twelve jewelled gates,
on whose twelve foundation-stones are written the names of the mighty
founders, the twelve apostles of the slain one. The glories of that
last, heavenly, and truly eternal city, are told, and the mighty course
of prophecy ceases. The three great series of events are announced; the
endless triumphs of the faithful are achieved.