06. The Seer
THE BOOK OF REVELATION. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IT AND JOHN'S OTHER WRITINGS. THE VISION OF THE LORD. PATMOS. THE SEVEN CHURCHES. THE APOCALYPSE THE ONE PROPHETIC BOOK OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. SCHOOLS OF INTERPRETATION. STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK.
THE New Testament writings ascribed to John are the Gospel which bears his name, three Epistles, and the Book of Revelation or Unveiling. It is impossible with certainty to determine the dates at which they were severally composed, but the preponderance of evidence indicates the Book of Revelation as the earliest.
About no New Testament book have wider and more numerous diversities of opinion arisen, whether as regards authorship; date, occasion, meaning, or value. Merely to exhibit these diversities would require a volume by itself. From the first, the great majority of Christians have received it as certainly a genuine work of the Apostle, while a few, both in the past and now, have contended for a John who was not an apostle;* and others have asserted and attempted
* I am not satisfied of the correctness of the view that John the Apostle and John the Presbyter were different persons. The proof seems to me to break down at a critical point. And I cannot but think that those who believe in the two are more easily convinced than they take credit for.
THE BOOK OF REVELATION.
to prove that it is a forgery in the Apostle's name. At the time of the Reformation, Luther pronounced it to be neither apostolic nor prophetical; and though he afterwards expressed himself less strongly, his judgment was not materially altered. It would be easy to make out a list of able men since Luther's time who have, for different reasons, consented to his conclusion. The book certainly differs greatly from the other writings of John, both in style, tone of mind, and standpoint. The difference is not simply that between youth and age,—between an unripened imagination and the calm and softened light of maturity,—but of another kind.
The difference seems to me to spring in part from the difference of subject: in one case the serene and holy manifestation of the Eternal Life; in the other case the throne, the Lamb, the powers of darkness, the conflict, judgment and plague and woe, and all the mingled events that take place onward to the establishment of the New Jerusalem. In part also, and still more largely, from the difference of mental mood: in one case the aged Apostle telling calmly forth, as to his little children,—on some "sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright"—what he had held in sacred remembrance for a long life-time; in the other case the son of thunder rapt in ecstasy, and thrown back into the language of his youth. In part also the difference seems to me designed, in order to connect the prophecy more evidently and perfectly with the ancient Scriptures. The very names applied to God are Old Testament names. Nowhere do we meet the "Abba, Father" of the New Covenant; it is the "Lord God of the holy prophets," "the Lord God Almighty;" and here alone (xi. 15), in the whole range of apostolic writings, is the name "Our Lord" applied to the Father. Thus, in Gospel and Apocalypse, are the two poles of his VISION OF JESUS GLORIFIED.
nature exhibited; otherwise there would be incompleteness in the use made of him.
If there are differences, there are also deep, subtle, and peculiar harmonies, which can only be accounted for by identity of authorship. It is as if one and the same voice should sing at one time a wild battle-ode, and by and by a low, sweet song of home love, that looks into immortality, like the "Land o' the Leal."* On the whole, as the result of critical examination and the weighing of historic evidence, the earliest view is again almost universally accepted, and the book is received as emanating from the Apostle. Even the doubting school has come generally to allow its apostolic origin, endorsing the statement that "hardly one book of the New Testament has such a list of historical witnesses marked by name on its behalf." It was while exiled in Patmos, during the reign of Domitian, that John beheld the visions which he recorded in this book. The book, therefore, has its historical mooring, and does not "swim in the air." Being in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, the Apostle heard a great voice, as of a trumpet, talking with him, a voice loud, clear, and articulate; and turning round, he saw seven golden candlesticks or lampstands, and in the midst of them the glorified Redeemer, appearing, as in the prophetic vision of Daniel
* It is to the music of a battle-ode, only with a change from triumphant to pathetic, that Lady Nairn's exquisite lyric goes:—
"I'm wearin' awa', John,
Like snaw - drift in thaw,
John;
I'm wearin' awa'
To the land o' the leal.
There's nae sorrow there, John;
There's neither cauld nor care,
John;
The day's aye fair
I' the land o' the leal."
"Our bonny bairn's there, John;
She was baith gude and fair,
John;
And oh, we grudged her sair
To the land o' the leal.
But sorrow's sel' wears past,
John,
And joy's a-comin' fast, John,
The joy that's aye to last
I' the land o' the leal."
THE SEVEN CHURCHES.
by the side of the great river Hiddekel, like unto a son of man. Psychologists tell us how, under certain conditions, the emotions and images of the mind so overpower the senses as to press them into service, and force them to give expression to what is passing within the bosom. It was nothing of this kind here, so far as the narrative indicates; but a true beholding of the Lord. He was robed even to the foot, like a king-priest, in white, and girt with a golden girdle; His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow; His eyes gleamed as a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; His voice was majestic as the sound of many waters; in His right hand He held seven stars; out of His mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword; His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength:—"and when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead." With the touch of His right hand He restored strength to His servant, and bade him write what he now saw, and the visions which were about to be unfolded to him, sending his book to the seven churches of Asia. We are not to suppose that only seven churches and no more existed in that province. The probability is that they were much more numerous. But these seven are singled out as representative churches. The number Seven is the covenant number, for which reason it is also seized upon by the Wicked One, and worked into the anti-christian system. The churches are divided into two groups of three and four, by the build of the Epistles addressed to them as well as by geographical situation, the first group lying toward the sea, the second more inland. They form a kind of symbolical circle.* I take
* Concerning the number Seven as symbolical, made up of three and four, perpetually meeting us not only in Revelation, but in the page of nature, see an interesting chapter in The Symbolical Numbers of Scripture,
THE CROWN OF SCRIPTURE.
it that a copy of the Apocalypse was sent to each of these churches, and with each copy a short Epistle to the particular church, the whole being collected in the second and third chapters. The words spoken by Christ and written down by John, are “what the Spirit saith.” At the close of each Epistle, “he that hath an ear”—each individual man—is summoned to listen. The words are addressed “to the churches.” What a sweep that gives them—to the churches—the wide world over, and down all time!
As our waking thoughts are the stuff out of which our dreams are fashioned, so the imagery of Revelation has for its base partly the Apostle’s own experiences and memories, and partly the Temple services at Jerusalem, the history of his nation, and the writings of ancient Prophets. The white cloud, the earthquake, the thunderings and lightnings, the great hail, the rainbow round about His head, the sound of many waters, every mountain and island, the great mountain as it were burning with fire, the sea, the sand on its shore, the sea of glass like unto crystal, the sea of glass as it were mingled with fire, and so on—all this various imagery would be most natural in Patmos. The Apocalypse is the one prophetic book of the New Testament. It throbs with the martyr-spirit throughout. Milton describes it as “the majestic image of a high and stately tragedy, shutting up and mingling her solemn scenes and acts with a sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies.” Being written after the destruction of Jerusalem, we cannot make it refer to that catastrophe, and to a hoped-for golden age beyond. Its design is, by “signifying,” or by Malcolm White, M.A. (T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh.) The influence of the Apocalypse is seen in the building of “churches” in groups of seven—as, e.g., at Glendslough or Clonmacnoise in Ireland.
DIFFERENT VIEWS.
exhibiting in sign, things that should shortly come to pass, to inspire the Christian church with hope and courage and patience, indicating her future course, through calm and storm, onwards to the glorious appearing of the Lord and the final victory over all hostile powers, when His saved people shall enter on untroubled and eternal joy. Without the Apocalypse, the Bible would be an unfinished Book, nor should we know the issue of the conflict between God and evil. "One voice alone," as Herder says, "prevails throughout it, *The Lord comes*; one feeling, that *God is all in all*." "Behold, He cometh with clouds," meets us in the beginning; while again in the close He gives the assurance, "Behold, I come quickly." Discussions—sometimes fierce and bitter—have arisen under various questions, such as these: Is the book a prophetic poem, whose imagery must not be taken too strictly? or is it prophecy in the true sense? If it is prophecy, how far are the descriptions to be understood literally? and how far figuratively? If the book is written in cipher, where shall we find the key? Looking at the numbers seven, ten, a thousand, and so on—are they ordinary numbers? or are they "prophetic"? or are they symbolical? Was the prophecy fulfilled, in the main, in the early ages of Christianity, in the conflicts with Judaism and Paganism? Was Christianity "triumphant" when it was made the state religion by Constantine? Or is the fulfilment proceeding at the present hour? and is it possible to discover our own place in the prophecy? Or does the book foretell events that are still—all of them—wholly future? Or will it be impossible to understand the prophecy till it is completely fulfilled? Under these questions the various ways in which the book has been taken group themselves. To some it is merely an inspired poem, setting forth
THE CENTRAL FIGURE.
ideas after the Eastern fashion, but not prophetic in any real sense.
To others it appears wholly fulfilled in the early days of Christianity, and we are now living in the time of the New Jerusalem—the communion of those who are born from above.*
To others it delineates the whole of human history, in its connection with the kingdom of Christ, from the days of the Apostle (if not from Eden onwards) to the general Judgment. The whole march and procession—the whole ebb and flow—of Time is represented to the Christian imagination, the central figure being that of the once suffering and now glorified Christ, who governs history, who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, by whom and for whom are all things, and who is the appointed Judge of the living and the dead.
To others the main part of the prophecy, from the fourth chapter and onwards, is wholly future. The Epistles to the Seven Churches are prophetic of so many successive stages of Christian history, running the one into the other, the issue being, that while the few faithful are blessed with Christ, the visible ecclesiastical community is “spued” out of the Saviour’s mouth. The visions commencing with the fourth chapter are held to pertain wholly to the future, though with illustrations in the present—as the Old Testament prophecies of Christ had illustrations in typical men and typical events; and when the fulfilment comes, it will
* Those who take this view find, for example, in Nero the Wild-beast. His name when Hebraized gives the mysterious number 666. It was believed by many that he was not really dead, but had retired beyond the Euphrates, whence he would return again. The waters of the Euphrates are dried up to make a way for him. With his ten satraps he burns and destroys the city of Rome. The whole book is interpreted in harmony with such ideas.
STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK.
be crowded within the strict literal limits of the years and days named in the book.*
Two things I would say: First, we must in our interpretation take warning from the errors of the disciples, when, by observing *the letter*, they missed the true *meaning* which Christ conveyed. Second, the Apocalypse is not a book for the mere arithmetician, far less for the fortune-teller, out of which might be constructed a “Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates” for the future; but as truly a book for the devout and spiritually-minded theologian as is the Epistle to the Romans. It is full of Christ. Nowhere does He seem more human, nowhere more Divine; nowhere more gracious, nowhere more majestic and awful. Bengel has well called it “a Book of the Cross;”† and, almost as well, Herder speaks of it as containing “manna for all hearts and all ages,” and “a book of instruction and comfort for all churches in which Christ walks.” It is not a *new* prophecy, but the old, from another standpoint and under fuller light. John sees the same things that had been seen long before; the unexhausted words of ancient seers, from Moses downwards, are taken up and uttered afresh. Speaking roundly, everything that is in the Apocalypse is to be found (in germ at least—sometimes fully) in the Old Testament. Thus the New Testament becomes “*committed*” (so to speak) to the unfulfilled prophecies of the Old. These unfulfilled prophecies have not come to nought; they do but bide their time.
* Some extreme Futurists hold that even the Seven Churches have not yet appeared, and will not until immediately before the end.
† Yet Bengel interpreted the book in such a way that he fixed the true and exact date of the binding of Satan and commencement of the Millennium for the month of June, 1836.
VISION OF THE THRONE.
The structure of the book, excluding introduction and conclusion, may now be briefly indicated. There are three divisions of unequal length. The first gives an account of the appearing of the glorified Jesus to John in Patmos; the second consists of the epistles which John was instructed to write and send to the Seven Churches; the third and by far the longest records the visions of the future which the seer beheld.
These visions (chapters iv.—xxii.) do not flow on continuously, in even current, like the chapters of a history, till we reach the last; but the eye of the seer sweeps again and again over the same space, so that we have so many parallel lines of symbol rather than a single continuous line from John's day to the consummation.
The vision recorded in chapter iv. is introductory to the rest. A door is opened in heaven; a trumpet-voice calls to the seer in Patmos "Come up hither!"; and "immediately I was in the Spirit" (Rev. iv. 2), in presence of those "heavenly things" after the pattern of which tabernacle and temple had been built. There is a Throne, high and lifted up, with One sitting upon it whose appearance was like a jasper and a sardine stone. The throne is compassed with an emerald-coloured bow. Around are four-and-twenty elders, clothed in white and wearing golden garlands. Out of the throne proceed lightnings and voices and thunderings. Seven lamps of fire burn before it. In front, within the circle of the elders, is as it were a sea of glass like crystal. Midway up the throne-steps ("in the midst") are four living creatures, with eyes before and behind, differing and yet like, who cease not to cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy," and are responded to by the elders, who fall down before Him that sits upon the throne, and cast their garlands at His feet, saying, "Thou art worthy." Whatever changes of scene and imagery we find throughout the book, the Throne never shifts. SUCCEEDING VISIONS.
The first series of visions, following the introductory one, is that of the Sealed Book (chapters v.—viii. 1). A book or roll sealed with seven seals lies on the open right hand of Him who sits on the throne. No one is able to open it or to look thereon until the Lamb, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, has prevailed or overcome so that He takes and opens it. His taking the book calls forth praises and thanksgivings with this for their burden, “Worthy is the Lamb!” A vision follows the opening of each seal, till the seventh and last is opened, when there is silence in heaven as for the space of half-an-hour. We are brought up to the very verge of the Lord’s coming; but the event itself is not described. The series of visions leads us to the threshold, and there pauses. The second series of visions is given in chapters viii. 2—xi. Seven angels with trumpets are seen standing before God. An angel, having a golden censer with much incense, whose smoke ascends with the prayers of saints before God, takes his place by the golden altar before the throne. He fills the censer with altar-fire, and casts it upon the earth. His act is followed by voices, thunderings, lightnings, and shaking. The seven angels then sound their trumpets in succession, the Seer describing what follows the sounding of each, and what is preparatory to the sounding of the next. When the seventh angel sounds, voices in heaven proclaim, “The kingdom of the world is become [the kingdom] of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.” The elders fall on their faces and give thanks, because “Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power and hast reigned.” The temple of God is opened in heaven (as when the vail of the temple was rent in twain), and the ark of His covenant is seen; and there are lightnings, voices, thunderings, shaking, and great hail. THE VIALS.
The third series of visions begins with the woman, the serpent, the Man-child (the woman's seed), and carries us on to the reaping of the harvest and vintage of earth. These visions occupy chapters xii.—xiv. They close with the appearing of a white cloud, and One seated on it like a son of man, golden-garlanded, and with a sharp sickle in his hand. An angel from the temple cries aloud to Him to thrust in His sickle and reap the earth's ripened *harvest*; and He reaps. Another angel from the altar (the fire-angel) cries aloud to one who had come out of the temple, having a sharp sickle, to thrust in his sickle and reap the earth's ripened *vintage*; he reaps, and casts the clusters into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. The wine-press is trodden without the city, and blood comes out of the wine-press even to the horse-bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. The fourth series of visions (that of the Vials, chapters xv., xvi.) preserves in part the imagery of the third, and follows it up. A sea of glass is seen, mingled with fire; and standing there (like Israel on the farther shore of the Red Sea) are those who have gotten the victory. Harp in hand, they sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. The temple of the tabernacle of the covenant in heaven is then opened, and seven angels issue forth, clothed in pure and white linen, with golden girdles, bearing in their hands seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, which they are commanded to pour out upon the earth. They obey, and pour out their vials in succession. When the seventh is poured out, a voice from the throne cries, "*It is done.*" Voices, thunders, lightnings follow, and a mighty shaking. The great city is divided into three parts; the cities of the nations fall; great Babylon comes in remembrance before God, to receive her cup of wrath. The islands and mountains flee away, and there "ALAS!" AND "ALLELUIA!"
falls on men a great hail, and they blaspheme God because of the plague of hail.
The fifth series of visions occupies chapters xvii.—xix. 10. One of the seven angels who had the seven vials full of wrath carries the seer in spirit into the wilderness, and shows him the judgment of the great harlot, drunken with the blood of saints. She is identified with that great city, Babylon, that rules over the kings of the earth. A great "Alas!" rises from all the earth at the fall of Babylon, while away up in heaven is a rejoicing "Alleluia." A glimpse is then given of the bride, the Lamb's wife, arrayed in fine linen, pure and white, symbolic of the righteousness of saints. And "blessed are they who are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." The next series of visions (xix. 11—xxi. 8) describes the final conflict and victory. The Faithful and True rides forth on a white horse at the head of the armies of heaven; He Himself is clothed in a vesture dipped in blood; His followers in fine linen, pure and white. Arrayed against Him are the Wild Beast, the False Prophet, the kings of the earth and their armies. Ere the battle commences, an angel standing in the sun summons all the fowls of heaven to gather together to the supper of the great God, to eat the flesh of kings and captains and mighty men and horses and their riders. The battle is joined; the Beast and the False Prophet are taken and cast into a lake of fire; and the remnant are slain, and all the fowls of the air are filled with their flesh. After this an angel comes down from heaven, with a key and a great chain, and binds the Dragon, (that old Serpent, the Devil,) and shuts him up in the bottomless pit for a thousand years.
THE NEW JERUSALEM.
Then thrones are seen; and to those who sit on them judgment is given. The souls of them who had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as did not worship the Beast nor his image, nor receive his mark in forehead or hand, live and reign with Christ a thousand years. This is the First Resurrection.
At the end of the thousand years, Satan is loosed from his prison, and goes forth again to deceive the nations. He succeeds in gathering them to war against the Lamb; and they compass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. Fire comes down from heaven and destroys them. The Devil who deceived them is also cast (like the Beast and the False Prophet before him) into the lake of fire.
Then is seen a Great White Throne, and One sitting thereon, from whose face earth and heaven flee away. It is the Throne of Judgment; and the dead, small and great, are gathered before it, and judged every man according to his works. Death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire, together with all whose names were not found written in the Lamb's book of life.
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." The holy city, new Jerusalem, comes down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. A great voice out of heaven cries, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God: 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."
"FOR EVER AND EVER."
The final vision (xxi. 9—xxii. 5) is that of the New usalem itself, viewed in its historical manifestation. It
"the city which hath foundations, whose builder and ker is God." The vision is not a mere enlargement of
2—4. The Seer is transported by one of the seven els that had the seven last plagues to a great and high untain: and looking forward, as it were, from his own sent into the far distance, he sees "that great city, the y Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having glory of God." In its historic beginning it is repreted as contemporaneous with the existence of "nations"
the earth, and nations that require "healing." It has a nistry of grace for these nations. As for the inhabitants mselves, there is an end of all the evil consequences of fall. "There shall be no more curse; but the throne
God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants ll serve Him; and they shall see His face; and His me shall be in their foreheads: and there shall be no t there; and they need no candle, neither light of the for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall gn for ever and ever."
"HE WHO TESTIFIETH THESE THINGS SAITH, SURELY I
HE QUICKLY. AMEN: EVEN SO, COME, LORD JESUS."
VI.