“John to the SEVEN ECCLESIAS which are in the Asia: joy to you and peace from the WHO IS, and WHO WAS, and WHO IS COMING; and from the SEVEN SPIRITS which is before his throne; and from Jesus Anointed, the faithful witness, the Chiefborn from among the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth: to him having loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us kings and priests for the Deity, even our Father, to him be the glory and the supremacy during the AIONS OF THE AIONS. Amen”—APOC. i. 4-6.
As we have seen, John, the beloved apostle, having tarried till the Lord came, and therefore witnessed the devouring of the Mosaic body politic by the Roman Eagles of the East, by the common consent of all reliable antiquity, was honored as the channel through which the wonders of the Apocalypse should be communicated to men. Having informed us in the first verse whence he derived it, from the fountain and origin of all wisdom and knowledge, from the THEOS, or Former and Disposer of all things, through the Anointed Jesus by his messenger; p. 119 and for the Servants of the Father, he now tells us to what special communities of the faithful the invaluable gift was to be confided; that they might multiply it, and circulate it among all the Ecclesias of the Habitable, as the last communication from heaven till the time should come for the glory and power to be manifested before the eyes of all nations. He was not left at liberty to send it to what congregations his own prudence might suggest; but he tells us, in the tenth and eleventh verses, “I came to be in spirit in the Lord’s day: and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet, saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last: and what thou beholdest write for a scroll, and send to the Seven Ecclesias which are in Asia; to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” Hence there was no alternative. The Apocalypse must be sent to these seven. In obedience, therefore, to this command, in writing he primarily addresses himself to “the seven ecclesias which are in the Asia.”
1. “Church”
In the rendering of the original before us I have not translated the word εκκλησιαι, ekklesiai, but simply transferred it. It is generally rendered churches; but this word does not express the ideas of ecclesia. Church is a corruption of κυριακη kuriake, which signifies “pertaining to a lord.” The Anglo-Saxons took the first and last syllables of the Greek word, as kur-ke, which they spelled Circe; but which is more obviously shown in the Scotch kirke; both of which are equivalent to the modern English Chur-ch. “Something pertaining to a lord” is the etymological signification of the word; and although, in a certain sense, an ecclesia is something pertaining to a lord, and that lord the Lord of heaven and earth, yet the ideas of property and lordship are not contained in the word ecclesia. This is one reason why in this exposition of the Apocalypse we reject the word church as the representative of ecclesia.
Another reason is, that ideas are conventionally associated with the word which are altogether unscriptural. Ecclesia never signifies in the Bible “the place which Christians consecrate to the worship of God;” nor does it signify such collective bodies of “professors of religion” as pass current for Christians in and with the world, under the various “names and denominations” of “Christendom.” These, and many other ideas associated with the word church, such as churchman, church-warden, church-attire, churchyard, churching of women, and all such papistical foolishness, are altogether foreign from the scriptural use of ecclesia. p. 120 In order, therefore, tc get quit of all the rubbish we exclude church from our apocalyptic vocabulary, and hold on to the word used by the apostles. We have therefore transferred it in our rendering without translation.
Still, as an expounder of the word of truth, it is our duty to make the word ecclesia perfectly intelligible to the unlearned reader; for we write principally for the benefit of such.
2. Of Ecclesia
Ecclesia, then, is a word compounded of εκ, ek, “out of,” and κλησις, klēsis, “a call, or invitation.” Hence an εκκλησις, ekklēsis, is “an invitation to come out;” and the assembly of people convened in consequence of their acceptance of the invitation is an ecclesia. This is the etymology of the word, which is also in agreement with its scriptural constitution, which we shall briefly explain.
The mission of the apostles was to the Jews first, and afterwards to the Gentiles, for the purpose of announcing to them an invitation from the Deity to certain things, which, when accepted, became to the invited “the Hope of the Calling.” In delivering this message, or invitation, they distinctly defined the things to which their hearers were invited. In doing this, they informed them of the purpose of Deity—that He had appointed a day in the which the whole inhabited earth should be ruled in righteousness by the Anointed Jesus, whom he had raised from among the dead—Dan. ii. 44; vii. 14; Acts xvii. 31. But that, before that “day” of the administration of the world’s affairs in righteousness should be introduced, He had, in his great mercy and goodness, determined to invite all Jews and Gentiles to a share in that kingdom and glory with eternal life, upon certain specified and indispensable conditions. Hence the twelve apostles, constituting “the Apostleship of the Circumcision,” were sent to the circumcised; and Paul to the uncircumcised, to invite all ranks and degrees of all nations “to God’s Kingdom and Glory”—1 Thess. ii. 12. The result proposed by this invitation was not the converting of the “immortal souls” of mankind, and the saving of them from eternal conflagration in the apocalyptic “Lake of Fire and Brimstone;” it was not that they might “get religion,” and by its efficacy obtain a right and title to mansions in the skies: no such clerical results as these were proposed by the invitation. The invitation was designed, in the words of James, “to take out of the nations a people FOR HIS NAME.” The expected consummation was not the conversion of nations by the apostles and their successors in the faith, but the separation of a class from the general body of mankind, which class p. 121 should constitute the “ONE YAHWEH-NAME;” and that by this Almighty Name the world should be ruled in righteousness. When this name is completed,—that is, when the last believer shall be inducted into it, and all its elements shall be glorified,—it will constitute the ecclesia in its largest sense. When glorified, its members will occupy “the heavens;” not the skies, but the apocalyptic heavens, to which the kingdoms of this world belong—Rev. xi. 15; Dan. vii. 18, 27. In the present state, they are “an ecclesia of Chiefborns, who have been enrolled for heavens”—Heb. xii. 23. The apostles were engaged in enrolling men and women for the future administration of the world’s affairs; so that when they shall attain to dominion they will be “the Heavens that rule.” The gospel invites men to enrolment for becoming in due time the stars and constellations of the New Heavens, in which dwells righteousness, that they may shine as such in the kingdom of their Father—Dan. xii. 3; Matt. xiii. 43.
But men and women become elements of this people of the Name upon certain specified and indispensable conditions. They are invited to God’s kingdom and glory; and they accept the invitation in believing the gospel of the kingdom and name, and subjecting themselves to “the obedience of faith.” What Paul styles “the wholesome words of the Lord Jesus,” are these: “He having believed and been baptized shall be saved; but he having not believed shall be condemned.” If it be asked, what is a man required to believe? The Lord Jesus replies in the previous verse, “THE GOSPEL”—Mark xvi. 15, 16. There is no salvation without belief of, and obedience to this. Hence when Philip, one of the seven deacons, preached to the Samaritans, it is stated in Acts viii. 12, that “when they believed Philip evangelizing THE THINGS concerning the Kingdom of the Deity, and of the Name of the Anointed Jesus, they were immersed, both men and women.” The things of the Kingdom and the Name are the great subject-matter of the Gospel of God, “promised before,” says Paul, “through the Prophets in holy writings”—Rom. i. 2: and “the power of God for salvation to every one who believes.” Without this power none can be saved; hence the immense importance of “the gospel of the kingdom,” which is totally different to anything preached for salvation by the clergy. “The things” must be known, understood, believed, and obeyed, with an honest and good heart. This is indispensable. But the work before me is not the exposition of the gospel; but the exposition of the Apocalypse for the benefit of those who have already comprehended and obeyed the gospel. Nevertheless, for the benefit of any sincere reader who is ignorant, we refer him to the Covenants made with Abraham and David, and to the testimony concerning Jesus in p. 122 the writings of the apostles, and to the preaching by these as illustrated in the Acts, for an answer to the question, “What are the things to be believed for salvation?”—See Gen. xii. 1-3, 7; xiii. 14, 15; xv. 6, 7, 8-21; xvii. xxii: 1 Chron. xvii. 11—15; Matt. xvi.; Acts ii.; iii.; viii.; x.; xxvi. 6, 7; xxviii. 20, 23.
Now when men and women became Christians after the apostolic fashion, (and this is the only way of any account,) they became members of “the Ecclesia of Chiefborns.” They were addressed in the apostolic epistles as κλητοι klētoi, “THE CALLED,” or invited, “of Jesus Anointed;” as “made holy in Jesus Anointed, called Saints,” or holy ones; as “the faithful in the Anointed Jesus;” as “the faithful brethren in an Anointed One;” and as “the Ecclesia IN God the Father, and IN the Lord, Jesus Anointed.” They, being in the Deity and in the Anointed One, and the anointing being in them, were a manifestation of Deity in flesh; and were addressed by Paul, saying thus, “Ye are all Sons of Deity in the Anointed Jesus through the faith: for as many as have been immersed into the Anointed, have put on the Anointed. There is (in him) neither Jew nor Greek; there is (in him) neither slave nor freeman; nor is there (in him) male and female: for ye are ALL ONE in the Anointed Jesus: and if ye be the Anointed’s, then are ye the seed of Abraham, and Heirs according to the promise”—Gal. iii. 26-29.
From these premises, then, it is evident that an Ecclesia is a community of men and women, who have accepted an invitation to the kingdom and glory of the Deity; in believing the promises and testimonies concerning the kingdom and name of Jesus Anointed; and in being immersed into him: by which faith and obedience they have been “washed from their sins in his blood; and made kings and priests to the Deity, even to the Father;” and so separated from the body of mankind for the Age to Come. The Ecclesia of Chiefborns is, therefore, not the Kingdom of God, as church, in the clerical sense, is styled; but it is the community of the HEIRS of the Kingdom; and every one knows, or ought to know, the difference between the heirs of an estate, and the estate itself.
From these premises, the reader will readily perceive that the distinction existing between church in the usual acceptation, and ecclesia as defined above, is not fanciful, but real and important. The churches of the Gentiles are not ecclesia. They make no pretensions to be such, according to the definition I have demonstrated. The members of the churches, judging from their prayers, extemporized and printed, are not saints, but “miserable sinners.” This is the designation imposed upon themselves by the most pious of the most exquisitely orthodox p. 123 establishments. Thus the evangelical divines, who lead the stereotyped devotions of the Fabers, the Flemmings, the Elliots, the Crolys, the Bickersteths, and McNeils, send up their voices to heaven, saying, “Lord, have mercy upon us miserable sinners!” Now, if the most pious and orthodox denominate themselves thus, what must the schismatics of the heterodox conventicles be! They all, doubtless, know themselves; and as they one and all proclaim themselves to be miserable sinners, who have gone astray like lost sheep, it would be presumption in me to dispute it. I accept, therefore, their condemnation of themselves; and am, consequently, justified in saying that a church, as distinguished from AN ECCLESIA, is a community of miserable sinners, possessed by a lord commonly known as “the god of this world.” It is not wonderful, then, that “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” should reign in the pulpits and all the pews. Churchmen, since the days of Eusebius, to go no further back, will have it that the church is the kingdom of God. Well, we grant it, with the understanding, that the God whose kingdom it is claimed to be is SIN, the great god, or power, of the world. There is nothing like understanding, and being understood, so that we may be able to call things by their right names. Here we have the line of demarcation broadly and distinctly drawn. The ECCLESIAS of the Scriptures are “the Heritages,” or κληροι, klēroi, the true clergies of the Deity, (1 Pet. v. 3,) who shall possess the earth and all that it contains; while the churches are the Kingdom of SIN, possessed and administered by his clergy for their own glory and behoof. This being indisputable, the reader will understand that the Apocalypse is not addressed to the churches of “Christendom;” neither is the salutation of joy and peace to them. Joy and peace are only for the Saints in the Anointed Jesus, who know, and have obeyed the truth, having been purified thereby—1 Pet. i. 22. The salutations of the scriptures are only for these; never for “miserable sinners,” whose case we dismiss for the present with the remark, that the apostles never commenced their epistles with “joy and peace to you, miserable sinners, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Anointed; but on the contrary, “to you, the Saints and faithful.” God is the Father, and Jesus the Lord, only of the enlightened and obedient; hence to these only did they send greeting.
3. Seven Ecclesias
The Apocalypse is remarkable for the number seven. The first time it is used in the Bible is in Gen. ii. 2, “On the seventh day Elohim ended his work which he had made; and he rested (or ceased) on the p. 124 seventh day from all his work which he had made.” In this, the ideas connected with the number seven are completion and cessation. Any thing denominated by seven, is complete; it lacks nothing to make it perfect, and beyond it nothing remains to be accomplished.
The seven ecclesias are specified by name in the eleventh verse of the chapter before us; and upon the principle of completeness, seven were selected rather than any other number, to indicate that what was written to the seven was written to all the “ONE BODY” throughout the Habitable in seven successive states thereof. No one of the ecclesias existed that could say it had no interest in the things apocalypsed.
The number seven was also associated with the ecclesias to denote their relationship to the parabolic holy place. They were the anti-typical lightstands—the heavenly things through which the darkness of the world was to be dispelled—the Ecclesia of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth—1 Tim. iii. 15.
They were located εν τη Ασια, in the Asia, that is, in that province of Asia Minor, or Anatolia, called Asia, where their several cities, then in a highly flourishing condition, were situated not very far distant from each other. The salutation was to these as the representatives of the saints and faithful everywhere. And how highly honorable to them, when we consider who they were, and the exalted personage whence it came. They were communities of “the poor of this world,” with not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble among them. To such, and not to the princes and potentates of the world, did the Creator of the universe salute them through John with “joy and peace.” He presents himself to them as Deity by the Seven Spirits in Jesus the Anointed—THE DIVINE LOGOS IN FLESH. He styles himself ὁ ων, “He who is,” which is equivalent to declaring that he is not dead, but “is risen, as he said;” also ὁ ην, “He who was”—He that is risen is the same as He who was before Abraham, and before the crucifixion: and ὁ ερχομενος, “He that is coming” in power and great glory. But that they might not separate him in their minds from the anointing, the salutation is said to come from Him, “and from the Seven Spirits which is before the throne of him;” and that the source of the salutation may still stand out in bolder relief, it is said to proceed “from Jesus Anointed,” who is “Deity manifested in flesh;” Jesus is the flesh, and the Seven Spirits the Deity with which the resurrected flesh is anointed so as to be omniscient and almighty. Thus combined, the salutation is from “the Lord the Spirit.” He is styled “the faithful witness,” because he came into the world that he might bear witness unto the truth; and did witness it before Pontius Pilate, in the face of the death which his confession brought upon him. “I AM THE KING OF p. 125 THE JEWS,” said he, and for that avowal he was put to death upon the accursed tree—John xviii. 33, 37; xix. 3, 12, 14, 19; 1 Tim. vi. 13. But though he suffered thus, he was “justified by spirit,” and became “the Chiefborn from among dead ones,” that in all things he might have the preëminence. He is also styled “the Prince of the Kings of the earth.” These, however, are not the existing “crowned heads,” nor the wearers of crowns in the days of John, but those kings and priests whom he hath made such unto the Deity, his Father and theirs. He is Prince, or Chief Priest and King of these, who shall with Him rule the Habitable in righteousness, and hence his apocalyptic title, “KING of kings and LORD of lords”—Rev. xvii. 14; xix. 16: “to Him,” says John, “be the glory and the supreme authority during the AIONS of the AIONS. Amen.”
There is a peculiarity in our rendering of this salutation which deserves a little further attention than we have yet given it. The form of speech is this, “from the SEVEN SPIRITS which is before His throne.” This is an ungrammatical form of words. Both Greek and English grammar require that the verb “is” should be “are,” and in the English Version it is so rendered. But verbal accuracy would lead to a doctrinal mistake. It is written in the Greek, “Seven Spirits which is”—ἇ[?] εστιν, ha estin; and the reason is, that these seven are not seven distinct and independent spirits, but the One Spirit in sevenfold or perfect manifestation. Paul says, “there is ONE SPIRIT, even as ye are called in ONE HOPE of your invitation;” and “there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit;” and “by One Spirit we were all immersed into One Body; and have been all made to drink into One Spirit”—Eph. iv. 4; 1 Cor. xii. 4, 13. Hence “seven” prefixed to “spirits” does not indicate plurality of spirits, but perfection in wisdom, knowledge, and power of one and the same spirit; so that this perfection is expressed by plurality of figure, while the oneness of the Spirit is expressed ungrammatically by the verb in the singular. The phrase, therefore, “the Seven Spirits which is,” is a Hebraism like that in Gen. i. 1, ברא אלהים bahrah Elohim, “Mighty Ones he created”—cases in which the rules of grammarians are ignored for the convenience of the truth.
4. “For Ever and Ever”
In response to the salutation from the Deity manifested by spirit in Jesus Anointed, John, as the representative of earth’s future kings, ascribes to him as their Prince, “the glory and the supremacy during the Aions of the Aions.” In the English version, these words in italics p. 126 are rendered “for ever and ever;” and represent to the Anglo-Saxon mind the idea of unlimited futurity, commonly styled ETERNITY. This acceptation of the phrase leads to the conclusion, that the supremacy of Jesus as Prince-Priest and King of a priestly dominion on earth, is to be eternal; a notion which implies that sin and death are destined to obtain on this planet eternally. But this conclusion is altogether set aside by the teaching of the New Testament. In 1 Cor. xv. 23, Paul lays down a certain order of future development; as, first, “they who are Christ’s, made alive in his presence;” second, “the End.” Between these two epochs there is a long interval, the duration of which Paul does not define; but, having notified the arrival of “the end,” he tells us what is to come to pass then. He says, that the kingdom that had been existing during said interval is to be “delivered up” to the Divine Father; and that this delivering up is consequent upon “all rule, authority, and power” having been “put down:” for the reign of the Son of man is decreed of Heaven to continue till this result shall be consummated. “He must reign TILL he (the Father) have put all enemies under his feet”—Ps. viii. 6; cx. 1. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” The Son, then, is to reign as the Father’s kings and priests, until death shall be abolished from the earth. This implies the previous extermination of sin; for death is the wages of sin; and wages are not paid where services are not rendered.
We see, then, that the Son of man is not to reign as the majesty of a priestly kingdom after sin and death are rooted out; and be it remembered, that the kingdom the apocalypse exhibits is the dominion of the Father’s kings and priests. It contains but few hints of what is to be the order of things upon earth after “the End” indicated by Paul. The Melchizedec Kingdom of the Deity, subduing and reconciling terrestrial things to him, is the great theme of its visions and descriptions. When the end for which it will be established is accomplished, it will be delivered up, and then “the supremacy” of THE SON, both in respect of “the Head” and “the Body,” in other words, of Jesus and his Brethren, will cease. An end will be put to it. During the long interval of a thousand years, the supremacy of the saints is decreed. For all that time, two classes will exist contemporaneously upon earth—the world-rulers, incorruptible and deathless; and the subject-world of nations, peccable and mortal. Flesh and blood cannot possess this Melchizedec or priestly kingdom. Jesus and the Saints alone can have it; so that while it continues, their supremacy must and will be upheld against all aspirations of the flesh. But when the time arrives for flesh and blood, or “corruption,” to be abolished from the earth; and for all its future inhabitants to become Elohim, p. 127 or incorruptible and deathless beings, consubstantial with Deity; the ELOHIM of the previous thousand years will no longer be priests offering gifts and sacrifices for them to the Deity. The priestly supremacy will terminate with the cessation of the necessity which originated it; and the Deity by spirit will be the all things in them all. Thus, “when all things shall be subdued unto him (the Son), then shall the Son also himself BE SUBJECT unto him (the Father) that put all things under him, that the Deity may be the all things in all.”
Hence, John, who was in accord with Paul, did not ascribe an eternal supremacy to the Son, as taught by Anglo-Saxonism. He was not contemplating the position of Jesus in a postmillennial order of things; but his position in relation to the Millennial Dominion. In reference to this, he said, “to Him the glory and supremacy during the Aions of the Aions.”
“For ever and ever,” or even its parallel in Daniel, “for ever, even for ever and ever,” are phrases, then, that do not indicate “eternity,” being used of things which are in their nature, or constitution, terminable. But we must look to the original, and see what can be made of that. In the text of the Apocalypse, the phrase is εις τους αιωνας των αιωνων. This occurs fourteen times, and is uniformly rendered “for ever and ever,” except in chap. i. 18, where it is rendered evermore. In chap. xiv. 11, the definite article is omitted: the reading is, therefore, εις αιωνας αιωνων.
Now, as the Apocalypse treats of the same subject as that revealed to Daniel in his seventh chapter, namely, the kingdom and conquests of the Saints, we ought to find the Chaldee original of this formula, so frequently occurrent in the New Testament. And this we do in the eighteenth verse of that chapter. In this, the time is specified how long the Saints shall possess the kingdom; the same kingdom that Daniel had told Nebuchadnezzar should “stand לעלמיא leahlmayyah, for OLAHMS”—chap. ii. 44:—“they shall possess the kingdom ad ahlmah, wead ahlahm ahlmaiyah, for an Ahlmah, even for an Ahlmah of Ahlmahs. The Chaldee word ahlmah is identical with the Hebrew עולם olahm; and is represented in the Greek by αιων, though in etymology different.
The Hebrew and Chaldee nouns are derived from the verb עלם ahlam, “to hide, to conceal.” Hence an Olahm, in relation to time, is a period hidden or concealed; hidden in the past, or concealed in the future. In prophecy, it designates absolutely a certain period to exist; but without defining its beginning or ending. The kingdom belonging to the Saints of the Most High Ones (elyonin) is to “stand for hidden periods,” or olahms, comprised in one hidden period, or Olahm; which p. 128 must, therefore, be longer than all of them together. Hence this will be a Hidden Period of Hidden Periods, or an Olahm, even “an Olahm of Olahms.” I have a translation of Dan. vii. 18 before me which renders the time the Saints are to possess the kingdom by the formula, “for eternity, even for eternity of eternity.” This, however, is a mere flourish, and no translation, and bears on the face of it proof that the inventor of the form knew nothing about the nature of the kingdom, nor the purpose for which it is to be established. As I have shown, the kingdom is not to continue eternally; so that the Saints cannot hold it for eternity; and as the scripture is true, they do not use the word here in the sense of ever and eternity.
The duration of this Chaldee formula may be approximated from another direction. Thus, the kingdom the Saints are to take is the dominion of the lion, the bear, and the leopard, three of Daniel’s four beasts. They are utterly to destroy the fourth, but the political organizations represented by the other three, are to be continued in existence, but without sovereignty. While in existence, they are under the dominion of the Saints, whose administration will not be superseded by other rulers. The existence of these organizations subjectively to the Saints is defined; and consequently, the duration of their holding of the kingdom is thereby defined likewise. In ch. vii. 12, it says, “a prolonging in life was given the three beasts ad-z’man we-iddan, during an appointed time and a set time.” This, then, is the duration of the Olahm, or Ahlmah, of the kingdom—a hidden period containing an appointed time and a set time. The Apocalypse has revealed the number of years contained in these kinds of time, in telling us how long the Saints are to reign with Christ after binding the Dragon; whose dominion at the appearing of Christ covers the territories of the polities symbolized by the three beasts. They are to reign thenceforth with him during a thousand years—Apoc. xx. 6. The period consists of “a set time,” and “an appointed time.” A set time is indicated by iddan, which is equivalent to the Hebrew moaid, the word used in Gen. xvii. 21, where it is said, “Sarah shall bear unto thee Isaac, at this set time in the next year.” This is, then, a period of gestation, which consists of 280 days; a day for a year in symbolic time. This, deducted from 1,000, leaves 720 years for the “appointed time;” or two times of 360 years each. Daniel did not discern “what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in him did signify” by the z’man we-iddan, nor by the ahlmah of ahlmahs; but not so with ourselves,—for the Father has apocalypsed the solution in the thousand years.
The reader will, therefore, understand, that the prophets, under divine inspiration, predicted the development in a future remote from p. 129 their day, of a period that should continue “for a season and a time.” They did not know when it should begin, nor what length of time was meant by the formula; and consequently, could not tell when it should come to an end: but that such a period should exist, and be of a very peculiar character, even most glorious to all the righteous who should be contemporary with it, they were all agreed, as is plainly to be seen in all their writings. “I heard,” says Daniel, “but I understood not; for the words were closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” For this reason, the period was called Olahm, or THE HIDDEN; beyond which the prophets, and those instructed by them, did not often look. They saw it was terminable; and therefore if they spoke of anything not restricted to it, they would say, עד־עולם ועד, ad-olahm wĕ-ad, “during the hidden period and beyond.”
The promises made to Abraham and to David had especial reference to this Olahm; and the Apocalypse shows symbolically how the Olahm is to be introduced, and how the promises to those patriarchs are to be performed. Thus, the Spirit said to Abraham in regard to Canaan, “All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed ad-olahm, during a hidden period.” And again, reminding Israel of the same promise, He says by Jeremiah, “If ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings * * * I will cause you to dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers l’min-olahm we-ad olahm for from (the beginning of) the hidden period, and during the hidden period;” which in the Common Version is rendered “for ever and ever,” as though the Israelites were destined to be flesh and blood occupants of Canaan for eternity!
The covenant made with David is styled by him in his last words, “a covenant of olahm.” In the Common Version this is rendered “an everlasting covenant;” but it ought to be termed “a covenant of the hidden period.” It was so styled, because it was to be established then; and as the subject-matter of this covenant is the throne symbolized in Apoc. iv., and the kingdom taken possession of by the Saints in ch. xi. 15; Dan. vii. 18, it is styled “a kingdom of Olahm,” or the kingdom pertaining to the hidden period.
The Mosaic Period was an Olahm; for, although the Israelites knew when it began, none of them, not even Jesus, nor the angels, knew when it would come to an end. This is proved by Mark xiii. 32. When the Mosaic Heaven and Earth should pass away, that olahm would be ended, as it was A. D. 72. In this long period of 1695 years, there were numerous lesser periods, as the jubilees, or periods of restitution, recurring every fifty years. Hence the Mosaic was an Olahm of Olahms, one long period containing many lesser ones. But this system p. 130 of periods did not terminate in itself. It was typical, or representative, of times and seasons belonging to the throne and kingdom of the saints. Thus, in Apoc. xiv. 1-5, we have the Péntecost in the kingdom, in ver. 6, 7, the trumpet of the Jubilee sounding; and in vers. 8-11, the great and terrible day of national atonement, ultimating in the conquest of the nations, and their subjection to Israel’s Elohim for the olahm—Lev. xxv. 8-17, 39-46. Nor is this confined to the introduction of the olahm of the kingdom; there are periodically recurring olahms during all the thousand years, indicated by the observance of the Passover and Feast of Tabernacles to be observed by all nations—Ezek. xlv. 21; Zech. xiv. 16-19. For this cause, therefore, the thousand years is called in Daniel “an Olahm, even an Olahm of Olahms;” but by no means an eternity.
Presuming, then, that the reader comprehends the matter thus far, I proceed to remark, that the Seventy Israelites who translated the prophets into Greek for the king of Egypt, substituted for olahm the word ΑΙΩΝ. But, although this does not express the same idea as olahm, it was about as good a word as they could select. It was indefinite; as indefinite as olahm; for it neither defined the beginning nor the end of the period it was chosen to represent.
Αιων is compounded of ἀεὶ and ὤν. The word ἀεί is from ἄω, ἀέω, or ἄημι, signifying primarily, “to blow, to breathe;” secondly, “to live, to pass or spend time.” From this derivation ἀεὶ would present the idea of a going on; and as a particle of time is expressive of that which is unlimited or undefined; “not so much that which cannot be bounded as that which is not bounded—which is not attempted to be defined, but is considered as going on, on, on. Ἀεί, therefore, alone, would not express the true idea of eternity, but only of time, whose end is not bounded by any specification. “This flowing word, indicative of passing time, must be connected with, and, as it were, anchored upon another of more stability, in order to give it any kind of fixedness.” This other word is ὤν, the participle of that verb of existence which expresses, in its philosophical sense, the highest mode of being. One part of the compound word, then, is unconfined; the other, since ὤν is of all tenses, altogether excludes the idea of time. Αιων, then, is not time, long or short, bounded or endless. Time is said to move in a circle, on account of its likeness to an Aion; hence an aion, and a cycle or circle, are analogous. It it therefore used in the indefinite sense of life, existence, or state of being. Thus, that end which contains the period of each existence is called its αιων. The aion of man is threescore years and ten; while the aion of Deity is “from everlasting to everlasting.” It is, therefore, A COURSE OF TIME, ἀεί, circling around, p. 131 ων, BEING; the circling depending upon the nature of the being circled. Hence, Deity being essentially life, the circling of time can never cease in relation to him; but priesthood and man being essentially terminable, the circling of time around them cannot always continue. The diameters of their aions may be measured by their continuance.
“The Aions of the Aions” in the places cited, are the period of the apocalyptic reign, which is a priestly administration “after the Order cf Melchizedec;” and therefore, of necessity, not eternal.
Aristotle, whose mother tongue was Greek, says, that “the period of each existence is its aion.” The thousand years is therefore the Aion of the Melchizedec Reign, containing aions or cycles within itself, in which Jesus, anointed with the Seven Spirits, will have and bear the glory, and exercise the supreme authority in the midst of his associates, over the nations of the earth to its utmost bounds.
But in the mythology of the heathen, the heaven of their vain imagination, which they placed somewhere above the atmospheric firmament, and having for its supposed existences the gods of “High Olympus,” and the ghosts of Elysium—was an Aion, and so entitled: and as its presumed existences were regarded as of infinite duration, this aion with them was eternity. Hence, also, those styling themselves “members of the church,” whose minds are traditionally embued with the vain philosophy of the Greeks, believe in the Aion of the heathen, styling it “heaven beyond the skies,” whose existences they allege are the ideas they call “God,” “Jesus,” “angels” evolved from the souls of infants, ghosts of departed saints, etc. This they call eternity—the Pago-Greek and Latin, the Catholic, Papal, and Protestant ETERNITY: and as the last three have had the translation of the scriptures under their control, and know nothing of any other Aion than an imaginary superatmospheric eternity, they almost universally render εις τον αιωνα, eis ton Aiona, and its kindred forms, by “for ever,” and “for ever, even for ever and ever;” and adjectively, by “eternal.”
Now, to simplify this matter as much as possible, I have constructed the following diagram, which will perhaps enable the reader to comprehend more easily the explanation we have presented of the scripture Olahms and Aions.
The Aion of Sin and Death, 7000 Years.
p. 132 In this diagram, the parallelogram a b c d represents a period of 7000 years, from the Creation until “the End,” when the Son delivers up the kingdom to the Divine Father; and Death is abolished. It is the period during which sin and death exist on earth, and contains three Aions and four Intervals. The aions are indicated by circular lines; and the intervals of time elapsing from the end of one aion to the beginning of a subsequent one, by parallel lines. The perpendicular line a c indicates the Era of the Creation. The parallel lines between it and the first circle, represent the time that elapsed to THE FALL.
The first circle represents the Antediluvian Olahm, or AION; and the figures in its diameter indicate that it terminated 1656 years from the Creation by the Flood.
The second interval, or space between the first and second circles, represents the period from the Flood to the typical confirmation of the Covenant of the Land with Abraham, a duration of 377 years.
The second circle has a crescentic prefix on the left. In the crescent are the figures 430, which denote that it represents a period of that number of years from the confirmation of the Land Covenant to the night on which the Twelve Tribes left Egypt for the purpose of taking possession of it.
The circle itself represents a duration of 1695 years, which terminated at the burning of the Temple by the Romans. This was the Mosaic Aion: and commenced at the baptism of Israel into Moses in the cloud and in the Red Sea—1 Cor. x. 1. The circle and its prefix enclose the whole period of 430+1695=2125 years; it embraced the αιωνες και γενεας, the Aions and Generations; and may therefore be termed the ABRAHAMO-MOSAIC AION, which, having waxed old, vanished away in blood and fire and vapor of smoke—Heb. viii. 13; Acts ii. 19.
The third interval, which lies between the second and third circles of the diagram, indicates the series of years which has already elapsed since the destruction of Jerusalem, and may yet elapse to the apocalypse of the Sons of the Deity in power and great glory to restore the kingdom again to Israel, an event which marks the commencement of THE REGENERATION. We have defined this interval by 1796 years from the destruction of the Holy City in the Vulg. Era 70. By the end of this period “the kingdoms of the World” will be about to become the kingdoms “of the Lord and of his Anointed; and he shall reign during the Aions of the aions”—Rev. xi. 15; the same phrase as in ch. i. 6. The end of this long period of 1796 years will terminate in the Vulg. Era 1864. About this epoch will begin, as we believe, the wonders that are to introduce a thorough and complete revolution of p. 133 human affairs, the representation of which enters largely into the scenes of the Apocalypse.
The third circle of the diagram has also a crescentic prefix on the left, only smaller than the preceding. I have made it smaller because it represents a shorter period—only 40 years, styled in the Apocalypse “the Hour of Judgment.” It is the antitype to the 40 years in the wilderness, and the Aion of the Sickles (Rev. xiv. 14-20) introductory to the third circle, whose diameter is 1000 years. This is “the Aions of the aions,” which are referred to thirteen times in the Apocalypse. It may be styled the ABRAHAMO-MESSIANIC CYCLE, because in it is fully displayed the covenant with Abraham concerning Messiah, Israel, and the Nations. This cycle of aions is “the Day of Christ,” which Abraham, who walked by faith, rejoiced in foreseeing. It is commonly called “THE MILLENNIUM,” because of its continuance mille anni, a 1000 years. To this circle belong το ξυλον της ζωης, “the Wood of the Life,” and the New Jerusalem. The Gospel treats of this aion, because it is the Aion of the Kingdom, and styled by Paul “the Aion to Come”—Heb. vi. 5. No one has ever heard the gospel who is ignorant of the doctrine concerning this Aion—the cycle enclosing the hope of all the faithful of patriarchal and Mosaic times. It ends about the Annus Mundi 6994.
The fourth interval of the diagram represents the “Little Season,” which intervenes between the termination of the 1000 years and the end of the 7000 years of the parallelogram. It is the brief period referred to in Rev. xx. 3, 7, 8, in which the Dragon-power revives, and, as the Seed of the Old Serpent, contends once more with the Seed of the Woman for supreme authority over the earth. How long after the end of A. M. 7000 the contest may continue, is not apocalypsed. It will terminate, however, in the suppression of the rebellion, and the restoration of Yahweh’s sovereignty throughout the earth. It is at this crisis that Sin, and “Death the wages of Sin,” are finally abolished, with “every curse.”
The perpendicular line b d indicates the end of the 7000 years from the Creation.
The fourth circle of the diagram represents עד ad. This monosyllable signifies “beyond,” and is part of the form of words, לעולם ועד, lai-Olahm wah-Ed, so frequently used in Moses and the prophets in speaking of Messiah’s Aion and BEYOND. It is the Aion of the New Things to be created by the Eternal Power, when the 7000 years shall have passed away—Rev. xxi. 5. Of the duration of this the Apocalypse says nothing. It may or it may not be boundless, but this we cannot tell. Whatever may be its constitution, of this we are certain, p. 134 that sin, curse, and death will have no more place in the earth, or the nature of its inhabitants. Its circling will be around incorruptibility and life.