Thus, this city mystically combines the wickedness of the three most wicked places on earth--Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem. These facts we shall notice more particularly hereafter.
But these two witnesses were not always to remain trampled under foot in the streets of great Babylon; for a time came when "the spirit of life from G.o.d entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them." In this is portrayed the reformation which is now taking place in the world. About the year A.D.
1880 G.o.d began to raise up holy men and women whom he commissioned to preach the everlasting gospel of the kingdom again; and they went forth in his name calling upon G.o.d"s people everywhere to come "out of all places where they had been scattered in the cloudy and dark day" (Ezek.
34:12) and to take up their abode in the one true church of Jesus Christ, his body, independent of all sectarianism and the creeds and disciplines of men. In this a.s.sembly of the faithful, gathered out of all nations, no man nor set of men attempts to form laws or regulations for the supervision of spiritual affairs; but with one consent they humbly bow before the only true Lawgiver (Jas. 4:12), and say, "The government shall be upon his shoulder" (Isa. 9:6); and the Word and Spirit of G.o.d have perfect control of his saints. Halleluiah! They can preach, teach, and believe every word of truth placed in the Sacred Volume, without a conference or discipline of men forbidding. Standing upon this apostolic platform of eternal truth, they hurl the thunders of divine judgment against the hidden works of darkness, causing the graceless devotees of fallen Babylon to quake with fear and to "gnaw their tongues for pain."
After the resurrection of these witnesses, a voice from heaven is heard, saying, "Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them." This ascension to heaven in the presence of their enemies, which according to this chapter occurred before the end of time, has reference undoubtedly to their great exaltation. "Thy greatness is grown, and _reacheth unto heaven_." Dan. 4:22. We see that in this text a similar expression signifies great exaltation. So this work is destined to a.s.sume such proportions that the people of earth may have the privilege of seeing the truth. In the preceding chapter John, as a symbol of the church at this time, under the living ministry symbolized by the rain-bow angel, was told that he "must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." Verse 11.
The signification of the time-period of three days and a half claims our attention next. According to the foregoing explanation, it will be seen that the writer applies it as three centuries and a half, or three hundred and fifty years--from A.D. 1530 to A.D. 1880. It will be necessary to adduce strong reasons for thus applying it. In the first place, the time-prophecies of the Bible are by no means confined to the year-day manner of interpretation. Many times in the Old Testament the expression occurs, "And it shall come to pa.s.s _in that day_," which expression is admitted by all to have reference to the gospel day, or the entire gospel dispensation. When the church of Philadelphia was promised deliverance from the _hour_ of temptation which was to come upon all the world (chap. 3:10), no one supposes that a short period of only one week is specified. The rulers of the ten kingdoms were to "receive power as kings _one hour_ with the beast" (chap. 17:12), which expression will be shown later to really cover many years. We might point out many such exceptions were it necessary.
Again, it was the beast that came up at the expiration of the twelve hundred and sixty years, or Protestantism, that slaughtered the witnesses, and we could not expect their resurrection during the reign of Protestantism, which every one will admit was longer than three and one-half years, according to the year-day application. The events as they have developed prove that it was just three and one-half centuries before Protestantism was entirely ignored and the Spirit and Word recognized as the sole Governors in the church of G.o.d. Besides, the general trend of events following the formation of Protestantism naturally divide the succeeding centuries into separate periods. The first (sixteenth) was a fierce conflict for the establishment of Protestantism; the second (seventeenth) was a violent reaction, wherein the church of Rome nearly triumphed over her hated opposers; while the third (eighteenth) is specially noted in history as the period of infidelity or reason. This division of time was so noticable that D"Aubigne, who wrote about A.D. 1835, in his famous History of the Reformation, refers to it in the following remarkable language: "It has been said that the three last centuries, the sixteenth, the seventeenth, and the eighteenth, may be conceived as an immense battle of _three days"_ duration. We willingly adopt this beautiful comparison.... The first day was the battle of G.o.d, the second the battle of the priest, the third the battle of Reason. What will be the fourth? [1830-1930] In our opinion, the confused strife, the deadly contest of all these powers together, TO END IN THE VICTORY OF HIM TO WHOM TRIUMPH BELONGS." Book XI, Chap. 9.
The writer is thankful to G.o.d that he is permitted to see the fourth day ending "in the victory of Him to whom triumph belongs." And may we, my brethren, be grateful to our dear Lord that it is our privilege to have part in this glorious reformation of divine truth that is now sweeping over the world and gathering the elect together for the soon-coming of the Savior.
13. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the G.o.d of heaven.
14. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
At the time the witnesses reach their greatest exaltation, a great earthquake takes place upon earth, and the tenth part of the city falls.
The nature of the symbol would point us to some political upheaval.
Since the great city of Babylon is composed of different divisions (as will be seen hereafter), it is a matter of doubt as to which part of the city is here referred to; but most probably that of the hierarchy as embraced in one of the ten divisions or kingdoms. Since the fulfilment of this prediction is yet future, I speak with hesitation and wait for the event to make all clear. It is probable, however, that either in this political revolution, or about that time, the Ottoman power will be overthrown; for immediately the announcement is made, "The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly."
15. And 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.
16. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before G.o.d on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped G.o.d,
17. Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord G.o.d Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
18. 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.
19. And the temple of G.o.d was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
The seventh angel that here sounded is the third woe-angel, and according to the description before us, ushers in the general judgment.
When the temple of G.o.d was opened that this mighty event might take place on earth, there were "lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail." Wondrous commotions took place in the world, for kingdoms and empires were all overthrown, and Jesus Christ was the only king remaining, and his mission was to raise the dead that they might be judged, to give reward to the prophets and saints, and to banish with everlasting destruction those that corrupted the earth. The description itself is too plain to need further comment.
"The temple of G.o.d" that was opened in heaven is to be understood as symbolical (as explained in chap. 6:9), and not literal. In other words, the heavenly world appeared to John symbolized after the sanctuary of the temple on earth. Chap. 15:5-8; 16:1, 7, 17, etc. This is proved clearly by the fact that, when the real heaven, the future home of the redeemed, is described, John says, "I saw _no temple_ therein." Chap.
21:22.
Before dismissing the visions of this chapter, I wish to call attention to one more point hitherto referred to--that of parallelism and contrast. While we have the history of the church apostate described by the treading down of the holy city, we have also, in immediate contrast and running parallel therewith, a history of the true church existing during the same period of twelve hundred and sixty years, although it was in a sackcloth state. And while the reign of Protestantism is described as a period during which the two witnesses were in one sense dead, we have in immediate contrast a history of the last great reformation, in which the spirit of life from G.o.d again enters these same witnesses, and they stand upright on their feet, to the consternation of all their adversaries. Amen.
CHAPTER XII.
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
2. And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of Heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
5. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto G.o.d, and to his throne.
6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of G.o.d, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
The three princ.i.p.al objects of this vision are the woman clothed with the sun, the man-child born of her, and a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. These, being drawn from nature and human life, would point us both to the church and to the state for their fulfilment. The symbols, also, are living agents, and we should expect the objects they represent to be such.
This woman is an appropriate symbol of the church of G.o.d, which is composed of living, intelligent beings; and that it is the true and not an apostate one, is shown by the fact that upon her flight into the wilderness she had a place prepared of G.o.d where she was nourished for twelve hundred and sixty days. In a subsequent portion of the Apocalypse a vile harlot is taken as the representative of the church apostate. In this way a proper correspondence of character and quality is kept up.
This woman appeared, not in the temple above, but in the firmament of heaven, where she was clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Thus the brightest luminaries of heaven were gathered around her. Arrayed in this splendid manner, she is easily distinguished from an apostate church, which would not be so highly favored with such attire in this exalted position. Doubtless the objects with which she is adorned have some special signification. The moon is a fit symbol of the old covenant, above which the church had just risen, only to be clothed in the superior brightness and glory of the new covenant. And as the moon shines only with a borrowed light, obtaining its illumination from the sun; so, also, the old covenant was only a shadow of the good things to come and now stands eclipsed in the brightness and transcendant glory of that new and better dispensation.
According to the explanation given of the seven stars in the right hand of Jesus (chap. 1:19), we are authorized to regard stars as a symbol of Christian ministers, and the twelve that appear most prominently in the first history of the church are the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The dragon, a beast from the natural world, would properly symbolize a tyrannical, persecuting government. This was a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. In the following chapter we read that John saw a beast rising up out of the sea with the same number of heads and horns, but ten crowns on his horns. And the dragon gave him (the beast) "his power, and his seat, and great authority." Verse 2. So far as the heads and horns are concerned, the only difference between the two is that the crowns--a symbol of supreme authority and power--have been transferred from the heads to the horns.
In chapter 17 John saw the same beast again and there received the following explanation of the seven heads: "And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short s.p.a.ce." Verse 10. Concerning the horns he was told, "The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet." Verse 12. With this explanation before us it will be easy to identify the dragon of chapter 12 and the beast of chapters 13 and 17 as the Roman empire, the first under the Pagan and the second under the Papal form. The seven heads signify the seven distinct forms of supreme government that ruled successively in the empire. The five that had already fallen when John received the vision were the Regal power, the Consular, the Decemvirate, the Military Tribunes and the Triumvirate. "One is"--the Imperial.[8] The identification of its seventh and last head we shall leave until later.
The ten horns, or kingdoms, which had not yet arisen when the Revelation was given, were the ten minor kingdoms that grew out of the Western Roman empire during its decline and fall. The historian Machiard, in giving an account of these nations, and without any reference to the Bible or its prophecies, reckons ten kingdoms, as follows:
1. The Ostrogoths in Maesia; 2. The Visigoths in Pannonia; 3. Sueves and Alans in Gascoigne and Spain; 4. Vandals in Africa; 5. Franks in France; 6. Burgundians in Burgundy; 7. Heruli and Turings in Italy; 8. Saxons and Anglis in Britain; 9. Huns in Hungary; 10. Lombards, at first on the Danube, and afterwards in Italy.
[Footnote 8: The fact that commentators and historians differ in their enumeration of the forms of government that ruled in Rome is often a source of confusion to ordinary readers. Hence an explanation is necessary. Rome was first ruled by kings, and therefore the first form of government is designated by either the term _Kings_ or the term _Regal Power_. Upon the expulsion of the kings and the formation of the republic, the royal power was entrusted to two men who held it for a year, and were called _consuls_. In times of great public danger the consuls were superseded by a special officer called a _dictator_, who had supreme power. As the early life of the republic was often threatened with grave dangers, Rome was often governed by a dictator; hence this form of government is sometimes called the Dictatorship. The third form was the _Decemviri_, a government by ten men, who compiled the twelve famous Tables of Laws. In 444 B.C. another change was made by the appointment of _Military Tribunes_ (whose numbers varied) with consular power. These were frequently called _Consuls_. The fifth form was the _Triumvirate_, a government by three men. The sixth was the _Imperial_. Hence the different forms can be enumerated thus: 1. The Regal Power, or Kings. 2. Consula or Dictators. 3. Decemvirate. 4.
Military Tribunes, Tribunes, or Consuls. 5. Triumvirate. 6. Imperial.
The seventh form will be considered in another place. See remarks on chap. 17:7-11.]
Other historians agree substantially with this. These kingdoms all arose within one hundred and seventy years. The dragon is described with the horns, although they were not now in existence and did not arise until nearly the time when the dragon became the beast; likewise, he is represented with seven heads, although he really possessed only one head at a time, and five had already fallen and one being yet to come. He is described with all the heads and horns he ever had or was to have.
The tail of this dragon "drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." Some people who have never learned the nature of symbolic language try to imagine such a literal creature as the one here described and picture in their minds what an awful thing it would be to see the third part of the stars falling to the earth. But real stars that are fixed or planetary never fall, and if they did, they would be as apt to fall in an opposite direction as toward the earth.
Besides, if one should come tumbling down here, it would knock this world into oblivion. But with a knowledge of the proper use of symbols we can easily identify this dragon with the Roman empire under its Pagan form; and the casting down of the stars, which were doubtless used as symbols of ministers as in verse 1, signifies the warfare which this awful beast power waged against the church of G.o.d, in which her ministers were always a shining mark for the first persecution and suffered terribly for the cause they represented.
The man-child is the next object that claims our attention. Some have supposed that it represented Jesus Christ in his first advent to the world. But this could not be; for Christ is never represented as being the offspring of the church, but, on the other hand, is declared to be its originator. Some, also, have supposed that it represented the church bringing forth Christ to the world in a spiritual sense. This, however, would be in direct conflict with the known laws of symbolic language. A visible, living, intelligent agent, such as this man-child evidently was, could not be the symbol of an invisible spiritual presence.
Besides, it has been clearly shown that Christ always appears in his own person, unrepresented by another, from the fact that he can not be symbolized. It is clear that this child can not signify a single definite personage; for after he is caught up to G.o.d, there is still a remnant of the woman"s seed left upon earth. See verse 17.
What, then, does the man-child signify? It symbolizes the mighty host of new converts or children that the early church by her earnest travail brought forth. The seeming incongruity that the church, or mother, and her children are alike only serves to establish the point in question when rightly understood. A child is of the same substance as its mother and is designed to perpetuate the race. So, also, the new-born babes in the church are just the same spiritually as those who are older, and are intended to perpetuate the church of G.o.d on earth. But this explanation of itself is not sufficient to entirely satisfy an inquiring mind, and the question is sure to be asked, Why was it necessary that the church of G.o.d in this dispensation should be represented by two individuals--a woman and her son? I also will ask a question--Why, on the other hand, was it necessary that the great apostasy of this dispensation should be represented by the double-figure of a woman and her daughters? The answer to the latter question would readily be given--to symbolize two distinct phases of apostasy. So, also, it was necessary that a double-symbol, such as a woman and her son, should be chosen to set forth _two phases_ of the church brought to view in this chapter. If but a single symbol were used, how could the church be thereby represented as continuing on earth and fleeing into the wilderness and at the same time be represented as "overcome," persecuted to the death, and "caught up unto G.o.d and to his throne"? This double-phase of the church--the experience of the saints on earth and the reign of the martyrs in Paradise--will be made very clear to the reader hereafter. But it would be impossible to set forth these two phases under one symbol, and therefore two are chosen.
There is also direct Scripture testimony on this point. "Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a _man-child._ Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?
Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." Isa. 66:7, 8. According to Heb. 12:22, 23, this Zion, or Sion, referred to is the New Testament church, and the man-child that she is said to bring forth is interpreted by Isaiah as "a nation born at once." Such language perfectly describes the rapid increase in the Christian church on Pentecost and shortly afterward, when thousands were added in one day. According to the apostle Paul, the host of Jews and Gentiles reconciled unto G.o.d through Jesus Christ const.i.tuted "one new man" in Christ. Eph. 2:15. See also Gal. 3:28. R.V. This man-child was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. For an explanation of this rule see remarks on chapter 2:26, 27. The twelve hundred and sixty days will be referred to later.
7. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8. And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our G.o.d, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our G.o.d day and night.
11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.
Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.