Revelation 10

Revelation 10:1-4

The feature of the tenth chapter which is most prominent is a radiant angel with a small book open in his hand. This little book we are assured, and the reasons are given below, is the New Testament. The chapter presents one of the sublimest pictures found, even in this book of sublime imagery. In order to understand its meaning, we must keep before us the time in which this great angel appears. The sixth trumpet under the seventh seal has been reached, and this angel, together with the events described in the tenth and eleventh chapters,–the open book, the oath of the angel, the eating of the book, the measuring of the temple, and the death and resurrection of the two witnesses, all lie after the appearance of the sixth trumpet, and before the seventh and last trumpet is blown. It has been found that the imagery of the sixth trumpet was fulfilled in the uprising, history, and conquests of the Turkish power,–the power which finally overthrow the Eastern Empire, occupied the Holy Land, and established itself in the lands of the Bible.

Its conquests were completed, Constantinople occupied, and its empire erected triumphantly on the ruins of its rival in 1453, the close of the prophetic period marked out for the duration of its destructive work. We must then look after that date for the historical events which correspond to the symbols found in the tenth and eleventh chapters. It will be observed also that the character of the symbols undergoes a change. The angel of the tenth chapter differs widely from the six trumpet angels. The student of prophecy will conclude that he not only symbolizes a movement of vast importance, but that this movement is religious in its nature. 1. He is a mighty angel; 2. he comes down from heaven, enveloped in a cloud; 3. the rainbow about his head is the symbol of hope and peace; 4. the shining of his face and feet indicate that he shall spread light and intelligence; and, 5. his standing on sea and land shows that his mission was to the whole world. And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not."–10:1-4. If the preceding interpretations are correct these symbols will find a fulfilment in events that occur after 1453. Their character seems to describe some mighty religious movement of a grand, imposing and beneficent character. In the verses just before, in the ninth chapter, the great Romish apostasy has been described, and it would seem natural that these passages should have some connection with the preceding verses, and that they would probably refer to some movement to destroy its influence. There is a movement which, beginning in the fifteenth century, under the auspices of Wiclif, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, was fully developed in the sixteenth century, about seventy years after the fall of Constantinople, and which appears to me to fully meet the demands of the prediction. The great Protestant Reformation, coming at the right time in history, is the mightiest religious movement that the world has known since the introduction of Christianity. If the apostate Church is a subject of prophecy it is only reasonable that the mighty movement which sought to break the power of Rome, and to bring back the children of Israel from their long Babylonish captivity, would also be portrayed by the prophet. It would be hard to find more fitting imagery than that of this passage, to portray that event. It indicates a mighty and beneficent interposition of God, and there are certain points to which I ask the reader’s attention: The angel holds in his hand an open book. The roll is not only unsealed, but it is unrolled so that it can be read. This open book occupies a very conspicuous place in his work. The book in the angel’s hand must be an emblem of some fact. I think that we need be at no loss to understand its meaning when we remember that the Reformation was the work of a book. Whatever the Romish clergy may pretend now, there is no doubt that before the Reformation they had taken the New Testament from the people.

The whole influence of the Catholic Church was opposed to its circulation, and in many instances persons have been burned for no other crime than having the Bible in their houses. The book was left sealed up in dead languages, and it was impossible for it to be read in the native tongue of any European people. This radiant angel, however, has in his hand a book open, significant of the fact that in God’s providence the Reformation should present the New Testament, on open, to the world. Wiclif translated the- New Testament into the English language from the Latin Vulgate; at a later period this was followed by the translations of Tyndale and Coverdale. Luther grew up in ignorance of the Bible and of true religion, but after he had reached manhood, found a Latin Bible in the solitude and gloom of an Augustinian monastery. Until he saw this he did not even know that there were other scriptures than those given in the Catholic Breviary. The study of that Bible made him a reformer. The Reformation was caused by the book, and it in turn translated the New Testament and scattered it broadcast throughout Germany. Indebted for its origin to the book, it made it an open book to the world.

It has caused the Bible to be translated into every tongue, and to become the cheapest book of the world. A movement that rescued the banished New Testament, that was itself due to its teachings, and which has resulted in that book being printed in every tongue of earth, and being furnished at prices that enable every family to possess the sacred volume, is certainly fitly symbolized by a book open in the hands of a radiant angel. THE SEVEN . This angel “cried in a loud voice,” likened to the deafening roar of the lion. We are not told what he said, but there is no doubt that it was his purpose to call the attention of the inhabitants of the earth and sea upon which he stood, to the book that he hold in his hand. “When he cried seven thunders uttered their voices.” In all the best manuscripts the definite article precedes the seven thunders in all three of the instances in which it occurs. This would imply that something definite and well known was meant. As there has been no allusion before to the thunders, they must be pointed out by well-known facts of history which give them prominence. We speak of the sun, the moon, the president, even if they have not been mentioned before, because they are well known. Certain facts will help us to understand what is meant. 1.

The apostate power which had taken away and closed the book of the New Testament was called the seven-hilled city, and is alluded to in Revelation as the woman that sat on seven mountains (chap. 17:9). 2. The word thunder has been constantly used to describe the threatening, blasphemous, and authoritative fulminations issued by the seven-hilled power against its enemies.

To illustrate this, Le Bas says in his life, of Wiclif, page 198: “The thunders which shook the world when they issued from the seven hills, sent forth an uncertain sound, comparatively faint and powerless, when launched from a region of less devoted sanctity.” These ecclesiastical thunders derived their power from the fact that they were hurled from the seven-hilled city. Very appropriately the bulls and anathemas of Rome may then be called the seven thunders. 1. It is a historic fact that the opening of the book by the Reformation, called forth the loudest voices of the seven thunders. The anathemas that had been wont to shake the nations were hurled at Luther and his supporters. Scarcely had Luther published his Theses, when an attack was made upon them by the Papal Censor at Rome, which was dedicated to Pope Leo and, ere a year had elapsed, a solemn Papal bull was issued and committed to Cardinal Cajetan, the Papal Legate in Germany, for promulgation against Luther. This was followed by others, and at last the thunders of damnation were launched against the German reformers by the seven-hilled potentate, who claimed to be the vicegerent of God. It is clear that the seven thunders did utter their voices. John says that he was about to write what they uttered. His act is symbolic. He becomes himself a part of the symbolism. His act shows that the voices of the seven thunders claimed a record as of divine authority. There was something uttered, and what was uttered was so presented that John was about to record it in the word of God. Then he heard a voice from heaven which bade him seal up what was uttered and write it not. It was to have no part in the words recorded by the divine sanction, and as far as the divine authority is involved, was to be consigned to oblivion. When we remember that the thunders that issued from the Vatican were regarded by the nations as the voice of God, and that the Pope claimed to be the vicar of Christ, we can understand the meaning of John’s symbolical purpose to record them as a part of the word of God, and also that of the heavenly voice which forbade them to be written. It simply represents what did take place among the reformers. There was an open book offered to the world. This resulted in the voices of the thunders of the seven-hilled city. At first there was a disposition on the part, even of Martin Luther, to listen to these thunders as divine. Let us listen to his own words: “When I began the affair of the indulgences I was a monk and a most mad Papist. So intoxicated was I, and drenched in Papal dogmas, that I would have been most ready to murder, or to assist others in murdering, any person who would have uttered a syllable against the duty of obedience to the Pope.” Again he says: “After being enabled to answer every objection which could be brought against me from Scripture, one difficulty alone remained–the Church ought to be obeyed. If I had then braved the Pope, as I do now, I should have expected, every hour, that the earth would be opened to swallow me alive, like Korah and Abiram.” In 1518 he wrote to the Pope defending his course in attacking Tetzel, but adding, “I will acknowledge thy voice as the voice of Christ presiding and speaking in thee.” Thus, when the seven thunders uttered their voices, he was about to write them in the Scripture; that is, to receive them as of divine authority. This was, at first, the disposition of all the reformers, but by some means the voice of heaven forbade them, and " they wrote them not." When in 1520, the Pope’s Bull of anathemas and excommunication was hurled against Luther, he refused to listen to the voice of the thunders, and in return did an act that electrified Europe. Having summoned a vast audience at Wittemburg, he committed the Bull to the flames by the hands of the common hangman. He had then heard the voice from heaven, which said, write not. This memorable deed marks the completion of the first epoch of the Reformation.

Revelation 10:5-7

“And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea, and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”–10:5-7. The reader will observe that this follows immediately after the seven thunders uttered their voices. It seems to be in the nature of a response. The seven-hilled power had always been a persecuting power, claimed universal dominion, and that its kingdom would be eternal. In response to the anathemas, thunders, and persecutions, called forth by the Reformation, the great angel who stands on both sea and land lifted his hand and uttered his solemn oath that the period of probation, persecution and suffering on the part of the Church, soon shall end. In chap. 6:11, the suffering martyrs of Pagan persecution are told that they should “rest a little season (chronos), until their fellow-servants and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” That second great period of persecution, here predicted, came when the seven thunders uttered their voices to anathematize the Reformation; but then the apocalyptic angel gives the suffering church the assurance of a solemn oath that time (chronos, the same word which is used in chap. 6:11,) should come, to a close when the seventh angel, the only remaining angel, should begin to sound. He does not affirm that time shall end until the last trumpet has blown.

As that is the next great epoch in the world’s history, outlined by the trumpets, it is affirmed that the days of tribulation are drawing to a close, and that the long-looked-for day of triumph, when Christ shall reign with his saints over every enemy, is near at hand. Nor does he affirm that absolute time shall end, but the great period of human history, stretching from the first sin to the glorious consummation when the kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ. This is evident from the declaration that, when the angel sounds and time shall end, then “the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants, the prophets.” Then shall all the mystery of God, the mystery of godliness, of redemption through Christ, the whole history of the grace of God as manifested in the struggling Church, be completed as the prophets have declared in portraying its history and that of the world.

Revelation 10:8-11

“And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”–10:8-11. I have already taken it for granted that the acts of John himself in this book of symbols, are symbolical. His readiness to write the things uttered by the seven thunders, and the command that he should not write them, the command to take the open book, to eat it, and the effects, are all probably symbols of events that have occurred in the history of the Church. What I suppose to be meant can be explained in a few words, but in order to have a connected view, I will give a synopsis of the events of the chapter.

1. The angel holds in his hand an open book.
2. He calls attention to it in a loud voice.
3. The seven thunders launch their thunderbolts against the reception of the open book by the world.
4. John is about to record their words, but is forbidden.
5. The angel affirms with an oath, that the duration of the power and terror of the seven thunders shall be short, and that soon the seventh angel shall sound universal redemption and triumph.
6. John is bidden to take the book.
7. He receives it and is told to eat it, or to receive and devour its contents.
8. Its words are sweet like honey. In the nineteenth Psalm the word of the Lord is compared to the sweetness of honey.
9. There are bitter effects that follow. The great object of this angel seems to be to present the open book to the world. The book is mentioned four times in the chapter; twice it is stated that the book was open. John, in behalf of humanity, receives the book; a symbol of the reception of the New Testament in their own tongues, received by the nations as a result of the Reformation. The word of the Lord was received by the people with great eagerness and joy. They found it “sweeter than honey in the honey comb.” But while they devoured the word with great enjoyment, the results that followed were full of bitterness. In many countries the New Testament was a forbidden book and those who accepted it were subjected to bitter persecution.

The Catholic Inquisition was organized in order to persecute and destroy those who had “devoured” the book. It would be impossible for the pen of history to portray the bitterness, horror and bloodshed wrought by this engine of Satan. In a single province, the Netherlands, under a single governor, the Duke of Alva, no less than 18,000 persons were put to death. There is portrayed last another consequence of eating the book. “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” To prophesy is not only to foretell future events, but to declare the message of God. This message had been declared once by the apostles, both in person, and by those who preached their words. For long ages before the Reformation this proclamation had almost ceased, but when the open book was received by the world and was devoured, the consequence was a revival of the apostolic preaching. John, the last of the apostles, and the representative of the apostolic body, again preached before peoples and nations through those who faithfully presented the apostolic gospel. The division of the New Testament into chapters is often unfortunately made, and especially so in Revelation. The separation between the tenth and eleventh chapters breaks a subject in the midst, and serves to mislead the reader. The great thought from the opening of the tenth chapter until the seventh angel sounds in the eleventh chapter, is the OPEN BOOK. In the tenth chapter it is seen in the hands of the angel, and is received by John symbolically. In the eleventh it appears as the divine measure by which the Church and its worship are measured; and again as the two witnesses, crucified, resurrected, exalted. As the result of this exaltation the grand triumph is reached, and the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ. Our attention is called in the beginning of the eleventh chapter to the Measurement of the church.