Section V. Symbolic Vision of the Spirit-Name

1. The Son of Man in the midst of the Seven Lightstands; and the Seven Stars

“I, John, both your brother, and a joint-partaker in the tribulation, and in the kingdom, and in the waiting for Jesus Anointed, was in the isle which is called Patmos, on account of the word of the Deity and on account of the testimony of Jesus Anointed. ‘I was 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. ‘And I turned to see the voice which spake with me; and having turned I saw Seven Golden Lightstands, and in the midst of the seven lightstands I saw like to a Son of man invested to the feet, and compassed about the breasts with a golden zone. And his head, and the hairs white, as it were wool, white as snow; and his eyes as a flame of fire: and his feet like to incandescent brass as if they had been glowing in a furnace; and his voice as a sound of many waters: and having in his right hand Seven Stars; and out of his mouth a sharp, double-edged longsword proceedeth; and his aspect as the sun shineth in his strength. p. 154 “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying to me, Fear not! I am the First and the Last, and the Living One: and I was dead, and behold, I am living for the Aions of the Aions; Amen: and I have the keys of the invisible and of death. Write the things thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass after these. “The mystery of the Seven Stars which thou sawest at my right hand, and the Seven Lightstands which are golden, is this: The Seven Stars are the Angels of the Seven Ecclesias; and the Seven Lightstands which thou sawest are Seven Ecclesias”—Apoc. i. 9-20.

In introducing his description of the first apocaliptic vision with which he was favored, John gives us a brief notice, in which he defines his own position and circumstances at the time. In the salutation, he addressed himself to the Seven Ecclesias of the Lydian or proconsular Asia. But there he simply styles himself “John,” saying, “John to the Seven Ecclesias.” It is true, that in the second and third verses he says a little more about himself; but these verses were most probably prefixed after he had “written for a scroll” what he had beheld; for the preface to a book is always written last.

Having, then, announced himself as the channel through which the divine salutation of joy and peace flowed to them, he proceeds to inform them, as there were many named “Johannes” besides himself, what particular man of that name it was who addressed them. It is “I, John, your brother,” says he, “and joint-partaker in the tribulation, and in the kingdom, and waiting for Jesus Anointed.” He and the Seven Ecclesias were in fellowship; of which he says, “and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Anointed. The Deity is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Anointed, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin”—1 John i. 3. They were brethren walking in the light of Deity; for, in relation to them he writes, “The darkness is passed, and the true light now shines”—ch. ii. 8. It is evident from this, that if the true light shone in John’s day, the “light” that now shines is not the true. The spiritual guides and their peoples profess to be walking in the light, in the very blaze of gospel sunshine; nevertheless “they do not the truth”—they neither believe it nor obey it. John therefore proclaims their walk to be in darkness, and them to be not of the truth, but liars. “He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him”—1 Epist. ii. 4. This puts all clergy and all their “Names and Denominations” beyond the pale of John’s fellowship, which was with Deity. He is not “brother” to the pietists of our day; neither are these, consequently, in fellowship with the Seven Ecclesias.

Being the brother of these seven, he was, therefore, “a joint-partaker in the tribulation.” This was a persecution which began to rage p. 155 against the Christians in the latter end of the reign of Domitian, the last of the Flavian family, who became emperor of Rome A. D. 81. The tribulation commenced A. D. 95. He does not appear to have been embittered against them in the beginning. In imitation of his father Vespasian, he made inquiry for such of the Jews as were descended from the royal line of David. His motives were evidently political. But there wanted not those who were glad of any opportunity of wreaking their malice on Christians. Some persons, who were brought before the emperor, were charged with being related to the royal family of Judah. They appear to have been related to Jesus, and were grandsons of Jude the apostle, his cousin. Domitian asked them if they were of the family of David, which they acknowledged. He then demanded what possessions they enjoyed, and what money they had. They laid open the poverty of their circumstances, and owned that they maintained themselves by their labor. The truth of their confession was evinced by their hands, and by their appearance in general. Domitian then interrogated them concerning Christ and his kingdom—when and where it should appear. They answered like Jesus when questioned by Pilate—that his kingdom was not of this Order or κοσμος; that its glory should appear at the consummation of the Order, when he would judge the living and the dead, and reward every man according to his works: poverty is sometimes a defence against oppression, though it never shields from contempt. Domitian was satisfied that his power was in no danger from Christian ambition; so the grandsons of Jude were dismissed with the same sort of derision with which Jesus had formerly been dismissed by Herod. They were indigent, but rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom promised to the obedient.

As Domitian increased in cruelty, toward the end of his reign, he renewed the horrors of Nero’s persecution, which began A. D. 64, and was the first time the Romans persecuted Christians according to law. Domitian put to death many persons accused of atheism, the common charge against Christians, on account of their refusal to worship the pagan gods. Among these was the consul Flavius Clemens, his cousin, who had espoused Flavia Domitilla, his relation. Suetonius observes, that this man was quite despicable on account of his slothfulness. Many others were condemned likewise, who had embraced Jewish customs, says Dion; part of them were put to death, others spoiled of their goods, and Domitilla herself was banished into the island of Pandataria. Eusebius records the same facts with a little variation: but, as he professes to borrow from the pagan writers in this instance, we may be content with their account. The charge of indolence against p. 156 Domitian’s cousin was natural enough, and does honor to the unworldly character of Flavius, who could not partake with the spirituals in the wickedness of their high places. Domitian, as emperor, was also PONTIFEX MAXIMUS, or the High Priest of the Roman superstition; as the Pope, who is his Image in the same city, is at this day. Flavius Clemens and his wife, as Christians, must have been peculiarly obnoxious to him; and, in the spirit of the times, regarded by him as “the enemies of mankind.” He therefore determined to get rid of them, and all such, whose unsociable atheism, as it was considered, was a troublesome rebuke and condemnation of the religion as by custom and law established.

While the malignity of Domitian did not forbear to shed the blood of the imperial house, it was not to be expected that he would spare the ringleader of the sect everywhere spoken against to which his relatives belonged. Tertullian accordingly informs us, that, by Domitian’s order, John was apprehended, and cast into a caldron of boiling oil; but, after the example of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace, came out again from the scalding bath unhurt. This wonderful result, however, did not soften the iron-hearted Domitian, who might possibly suppose that the apostle had been fortified by magical incantations. He banished him into the solitary and desolate isle of the Archipelago, called Patmos, where he was while he wrote the words we are considering. This persecution affected all the ecclesias he was addressing; for he tells them he was their “brother and joint partaker in the tribulation.” It continued to harass the saints until the death of Domitian, who was slain A. D. 96. He was succeeded by Nerva, who published a pardon for those who were condemned for impiety in the pagan sense, recalled those who were banished, including John, and forbade the accusing of any men on account of impiety, or Judaism, by which was meant Christianity. Others, who were under accusation or under sentence of condemnation, now escaped by the lenity of Nerva. Thus the “joy and peace” of the salutation came to the Ecclesias from the Deity. Only one person was not restored by Nerva’s amnesty. Domitilla still continued in exile, probably because she was a relative of the late tyrant, whose name was now odious throughout the empire. After his return from Patmos, John is said to have continued among the seven ecclesias till the time of Trajan, about three or four years after his release, having been preserved to the age of about a hundred years, for the benefit of the Body of the Lord. He died about A. D. 103.

Being a joint partaker in the tribulation as the consequence of his maintaining his fidelity to the “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, p. 157 and one Hope of the invitation,” he writes himself also “a joint partaker in the kingdom, and waiting for Jesus Anointed.” He knew from him, and the collateral testimony of his brethren in the apostleship, that “it is through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of the Deity.” He did not, therefore, shrink from tribulation, having the assurance that “if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.” The Lord Jesus had promised him equality with angels; and a throne in his kingdom, on which he should sit, ruling one of the tribes of Israel. That this was to be when the Son of Man should sit upon the throne of his glory; and in the regeneration characterized by the restoration of all the things spoken of by the prophets. John was awaiting patiently for this, as his beloved teacher had instructed him, saying to him and his brethren, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men waiting for their Lord, when he shall return on account of the nuptials; so that, coming and knocking, they may open to him immediately. Blessed those servants whom the Lord coming shall find watching”—Luke xii. 32-37; Rev. xvi. 15. This was John’s position. He had witnessed the disruption and overthrow of the Commonwealth of Judah, the sacking of the Holy City and Temple, and the dispersion of his countrymen to the four winds. He was himself an exile, because of his fidelity to “the word of the Deity and the testimony of Jesus Anointed;” his life ebbing away, as it were, on a desolate island. Surrounded by all these circumstances, and enlightened by these testimonies, it was impossible for him to imagine that he was in any other kingdom than Satan’s. But while in this, and feeling acutely Satan’s tyranny in banishing him from the society of the faithful, he was still “as a man awaiting his Lord,” and rejoicing in hope of his kingdom and glory, for which he had been accounted worthy to suffer tribulation.

2. “I was in Spirit”

While conditioned thus, he tells us that he came to be “in spirit”—εγενομην εν πνευματι. By reference to Ezekiel we find that when he was about simply to deliver a prophetic discourse, he introduced it by saying, “the Word of Yahweh came unto me, saying;” but when he was about to relate a prophetic vision he had seen, he prefaces his description by informing us that “there was upon me the hand of Yahweh, and he carried me out in spirit of Yahweh.” When “in spirit,” then, he both sees visions, and hears, and then proceeds to narrate. p. 158 This was the case with John. He was “in spirit,” and then he beheld, or was caused to see, what was invisible to men in their normal state. Hitherto he had seen nothing; but as soon as he came to be “in spirit,” he beheld a vision, and continued “in spirit” so long as there was any thing to be seen. When the vision disappeared, he was again as usual, and proceeded to write whatever might be communicated. This was the case while writing the letters to the Seven Ecclesias; but when he had finished these, and the time had come to exhibit another vision, he tells us that, preliminary to beholding it, “immediately I was in spirit; and behold a throne” appeared—ch. iv. 2; and in xvii. 3, “and he carried me away in spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman;” and so in ch. xxi. 10. Hence, from the general use of the phrase in this book, we are to understand that when “in spirit,” John was in such a relation to Deity as that he could see the things of Deity, which were known only to his Spirit; as Paul has said, “the things of the Deity knoweth no man, but the Spirit of the Deity;” in order, therefore, to know these things by primary visual representation, a man must be as John was, “in spirit.”

3. “In the Lord’s Day”

Having ascertained what the apostle meant by “being in spirit,” the next consideration is, Where was he conveyed to? and then, What did he behold there?

In regard to the first inquiry, he tells us, that being in spirit, he was in a certain day—εν τη κυριακη ημερα. He was in the κυριακη day. And what day, it may be asked, was that? Any one acquainted with the apostle’s faith and hope, will be able to answer the question readily. He was in that day, which “Abraham rejoiced to see”—Jno. viii. 56: the day that Paul said should not come until an apostasy had been thoroughly matured, and had become ripe for destruction—2 Thess. ii. 3-8: “the day in which,” Paul proclaimed at Athens, “the Deity will judge the inhabited earth in righteousness in a man (εν ανδρι) whom he hath appointed, having offered assurance to all, having raised him from among the dead”—Acts xvii. 31. This was the great day, styled in Joel, “the great and terrible day of Yahweh” (ch. ii. 31), and in Malachi, “the day that shall come, burning like a furnace,” in which “all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh, shall burn them up, saith Yahweh of armies, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. And ye that fear my name shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of p. 159 your feet in the day that I shall work, saith Yahweh of armies”—ch. iv. 1-3.

This was the day that Peter referred to on the day of Pentecost, when he quoted the words of Joel, and told his hearers, that “it shall be, every one who shall surname by the name of Yahweh, shall be delivered.” John stood up with him in the same proclamation; and all the saints, enlightened by their teaching, regarded it with great interest and expectation; and it was into this day that John, being in spirit, was conveyed in vision.

What then, should such a day be called?—“this day Yahweh hath made”—Psalm cxviii. 24? John calls it κυριακη; but why? Because it is the day when “the Only Potentate” in the Saints shall lord it over mankind—when those, represented by the symbolical Son of man in the midst of the Seven Lightstands, shall be the Sovereign Power of the earth to its utmost bounds. This power will be the Lord of all; and the word for lord in the Greek is κυριος, from which comes κυριακη, pertaining to a lord. This word is only used in one other place in the New Testament, as in 1 Cor. xi. 20, “this is not to eat kuriakon supper;” which is properly rendered “the Lord’s supper.” We may, therefore, with the same propriety, style the day, “the Lord’s day,” only being careful not to confound it with Sunday, which is never so styled in the scriptures; but rather “the first day of the week,” and “the eighth day.”

Upwards of seventeen hundred and fifty years have elapsed since John was in spirit—since he was in the Lord’s day in spirit, and that day has not come yet. Hence John was only conveyed into it in vision: bodily, he was in Patmos; but mentally, he was beyond the resurrection of the dead, by which the great and terrible day of Yahweh is introduced. He was taught this dramatically; for he first hears behind him “a loud voice as of a trumpet” speaking to him, and saying what is written in the eleventh verse. This was one state of things; and related to “those things which were behind” (Phil. iii. 13); or, as expressed in verse 19, “the things which are.” He then turned, as he says in verse 12; an action which brought him round, and placed him opposite to “those things which are before;” or, “which shall be after these,” the things which are—behind. Being now face to face with the Son of man, he was in another state of things—“the Last.” In this last state, he is told not to fear; and this exhortation to confidence and courage, falls upon his ears, while he is recovering from the death state. “When I saw like a Son of man in the midst of the Seven Lightstands, I fell at his feet as dead”—verses 13, 17. It was necessary to introce this action to represent that this vision related to things to be p. 160 manifested after the resurrection of John and his brethren from the dead; who are also to be raised by the Spirit, in which he then was; and which is dramatically intimated by “the right hand” of the symbol being laid upon him, which is symbolical of the power of the Spirit.

The trumpet said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.” This was the loud voice of the Spirit, who said, “write for a scroll, and send to the Seven Ecclesias in the (proconsular) Asia;” for when the letters are written, they are introduced as from him seen by John among the Lightstands; and conclude by saying, “he that hath an ear to hear let him hearken to what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias.”

What John beheld, then, and what he has described as the subject of his first vision, is a representation of the Eternal Spirit manifested first, in the things behind, as the Alpha and the First; and afterwards, in the things before, as the Omega and the Last; and that between these two sets of things, or manifestations, is the opening of the invisible, and the deliverance of the saints from death. In this turning point, or epoch, between the Alpha things, and the Omega things, of the Spirit-Manifestation, the Key-Power unlocks the Gates of the Invisible, and sets the prisoners free from the bonds of death: so that, when the Alphas of the Spirit shall become the Omegas, they will be able to say, as the constituents of the “One Yahweh and One Name,” “I am the First and the Last, and the Living One: and I was dead, and behold, I am living in (εις in, for, during) the Aions of the Aions;” or THE THOUSAND YEARS: “Amen.” Not that he shall live no longer; but, seeing that the Apocalypse treats almost solely of the Millennial Day and its antecedents, the duration of “the Living One” is only relatively, not absolutely, expressed. As Jesus taught, “they, who have been accounted worthy of that Aion, and to attain to the resurrection, which is from among the dead, cannot die any more: for they are equal to angels, and are Sons of the Deity, being sons of the resurrection”—Luke xx. 35. They live for the Olahm we-ad, the Millennium, and beyond; but it is only necessary to say that they live for the thousand years; for the resurrected who live all this time, will live also beyond, “and die no more.”

This first vision John beheld is the same that Daniel saw; and the proximate condition of both seers in beholding it, was the same. Daniel, as well as John, became the subject of symbolical death and resurrection. He speaks of himself while entering, being in, and coming out of the death state, in these words, in ch. viii. 17, 18, saying, “When the Appearance of a Man came near where I stood, I was afraid and fell upon my face * * * and was in a deep sleep on my face toward p. 161 the ground, * * * but he touched me, and caused me to stand up upon my feet.”

He is still more explicit in defining his condition analogous to death, in ch. x. 8, saying, “I was left alone,” as the dead are when buried; “and I saw this great vision; and there remained no strength in me; for my brightness was changed within me into corruption, and I retained no strength, * * * neither was there breath left in me.” When a man is in a deep sleep prostrate upon the ground, destitute of strength and breath, his internal light extinguished, and corruption in the place thereof, he is dead. When, therefore, these things are affirmed of living men, as of Daniel and John, they are symbolically dead. Zechariah was in the same death state, and “was wakened out of his sleep” that he might behold the Seven-Branched Golden Lightstands, which, when burning with the Golden Oil, illuminate the earth with glory, after the resurrection of the dead—ch. iv. 1. These conditions, then, happened to these prophets that they might be testified; and that they might constitute boundary marks, by which the reader might know whether the visions recorded related to the times before or after the resurrection of the dead. The Spirit-Man John saw said to him, after he had laid the power of his right hand upon him, by which he was brought out of the death-state, “I am living in the Aions,” or thousand years, by which we are taught that the Spirit did not refer to any period of that duration before the resurrection, but to a course of a thousand years after that event, dramatized in John’s person.

4. Seven Golden Lightstands and Seven Stars

“Having turned,” says John, “I saw seven golden lightstands;” and in the last verse of the chapter, he records the signification of them as communicated to him by the Spirit, saying, “the seven lightstands which thou seest are Seven Ecclesias.”

When the Hebrew would say that one thing represents, typifies, or symbolizes, another thing, it affirms that the one is the other; as, “that rock was Christ,” “this bread is my body,” “the seven lamps are the seven spirits,” and “the seven lightstands are the seven ecclesias;” that is, “that rock typified Christ,” “the bread represents my body,” “the seven lighstands symbolize seven ecclesias.”

The golden lightstand, as a symbol, is taken from the seven-branched golden lightstand of the temple. It was peculiar to the Holy Place, where it stood on the south side, opposite to the table of Show-Bread. As there were no windows, the illumination was by the combustion of p. 162 pure olive oil in its seven lamps. Without this lightstand and its burning oil, the holy was a dark place. It was therefore “a light shining in a dark place,” both lightstand and light being typical of something else. This Mosaic lightstand was of one stem, with a lamp on the top, and three branches projecting from each side, with their several lamps, making in all seven lamps or burners. Thus, the stock, stem, or shaft, was “in the midst of the seven lightstands,” altogether, stem, branches, bowls, knops, and flowers, constituting one illuminator of the holy place.

This was part of “the parable,” which Paul says was made up of “the patterns of things in the heavens”—in the true holy places. The things that the Holy Spirit signified by the pattern-lightstand in the pattern holy place, are of the Christ; for in speaking of the substance, or body, of these shadowy things, he says, “the body is of the Anointed One”—and that anointed one John beheld in his first vision.

The area of the vision is the state of being between the resurrection and the entire exhaustion of the wrath of Deity contained in the seventh vial; for until the wrath of Deity is filled up, no man can enter into the Most Holy Place of the Apocalyptic Temple, which is the Millennial Aion—Rev. xv. 1, 8. In this post-resurrectional and pre-millennial holy state of being, the saints of previous generations are gathered together in Seven Ecclesias, or in complete assembly, as typified by the seven ecclesias of the proconsular Asia.

These seven Asian ecclesias were very different in “gifts,” “administrations,” and “operations,” from anything extant, called “church,” in our time. The assemblies of the faithful in Christ were constituted of two classes of saints—the rulers and the ruled. “Obey them that have the rule over you,” says Paul, “and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account”—Heb. xiii. 17. “The Elders which are among you,” says Peter, “I exhort, who am also an elder * * * feed the flock of the Deity which is with you, taking the oversight, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; not as domineering over THE HERITAGES, but being examples of the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”—1 Pet. v. 1.

These official brethren, called episcopoi and diakonoi, “overseers and assistants,” (Phil. i. 1,) constituted the pneumatikoi, or spirituals, of the congregations, because they were endowed with pneumatika, or spiritual gifts, (Gal. vi. 1,) while the rest of the saints, constituting the ruled, were styled idiotai, or privates. To the Spirituals were given nine different gifts, called spirits, (πνευματα, pneumata—1 Cor xiv. 12,) not for their own gratification, but for the common good. These spirits are enumerated as, “a word of wisdom,” “a word of knowledge,” p. 163 “faith to remove mountains,” “gifts of healing,” “inworking of powers,” “prophecy,” “discerning of spirits,” “kinds of tongues,” and “interpretation of tongues;” “all these inworked the one and the same Spirit dividing to each one respectively as he willed”—1 Cor. xii. 1-11. Being thus ordered in Corinth and elsewhere, Paul said to them, “Ye are Christ’s body, and members partitively”—they were all of the body, but it was only specially endowed saints who constituted the foot, hand, ear, eye, and so forth, of the body; these special ones were members εκ μερους partitively—special parts of the whole.

The official saints collectively constituted in each congregation the presbytery, or eldership—1 Tim. iv. 14; and that each brother might know his place, they were set in regular order. They were called “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers”—Eph. iv. 11; and were ranked as, “first, apostles; secondarily, prophets; thirdly, teachers; after that, powers; then gifts of healing; sixth, helps; seventh, directors; eighth, kinds of tongues”—1 Cor. xii. 22. This eldership thus remarkably endowed, was the Lightstand of the Ecclesia, each member thereof being a bowl, or vessel, containing the anointing oil, or spirit, so that when they exercised their functions in the midst of the saints, they were as trimmed lamps with their lights burning—Matt. xxv. 4; Luke xii. 35. They shone collectively as a bright STAR in the midst of the body; and as the spiritual gifts were sent “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building of the body of the Anointed,” the PRESBYTERIAL STAR is styled “the ANGEL of the Ecclesia,” from αγγελος, angelos, “one that is sent.”

Such was the arrangement of things in the seven typical ecclesias of Anatolia; typical, not of “the church” in seven periods of its history during the times of the Gentiles; but of the saints in their gathering together unto Jesus Anointed, after their resurrection, and before they pass from the Holy into the Most Holy of the Apocalyptic Temple.

In the typifying relation of things (themselves typified and typifying) they were in the partitive, and not the perfect state. Referring to this, Paul says, “we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when το τελειον, the perfect thing is come, then that thing which is εκ μερους, in part will be done away.” This phrase, rendered in the English Version “in part,” is literally from parts—“we know from parts,” or partitively. That is, the word of knowledge, and the gift of prophecy, (“he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation, and comfort”) were “spirits” possessed only by certain individuals of an ecclesia—by parts of the body, not by all the brethren: so that the knowledge and the prophecy proceeded εκ μερους, from parts, or specially endowed individuals. But “when the perfect p. 164 thing is come,” symbolized in John’s first vision, “then that thing which is from parts,” the partitive, or partially distributive, order of things in the seven Asian ecclesias, wlll be abolished. This has been abolished, and we may say, before the time—before the arrival of “the perfect thing;” for this has not yet come, nor will it till after the resurrection. The knowing and prophesying from parts might probably have continued if “the Mystery of Iniquity” had not spoiled and desolated every thing; but as this prevailed through the working of Satan, the Angelic Presbyterial Stars, or Lightstands of the Ecclesias, shining by the Spirit, were abolished; or, in the words of the Spirit to the ecclesia in Ephesus, “I will come unto thee quickly, and will set thy lightstand a-going out of its place, except thou change thy mind.” But things got worse instead of better; so that, as a punishment for apostasy, all the lightstands went out for want of the Golden Oil of the Spirit; and the ecclesias were turned into “churches,” mere dark places in Satan, as we behold them at this day.

But when “the perfect thing” symbolized to John, is come, the Saints, as “a perfect Man” (Eph. iv. 13) will be caused to see face to face, and to know as they have been known. Let the reader turn to 1 Cor. xiii. 11. There Paul illustrates the relation of the general assembly of the saints to the order of things in his day, and to the order of things after the resurrection, by reference to himself as a child, and as a man. In the first century, the Body of Christ was in its childhood, and made up of νηπιοι, or “babes;” liable to be “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. iv. 14.) The πνευματικοι, or Spirituals, and the ιδιωται, or privates, apart from the gifts, spake as children, thought as children, and reasoned as children; and, by the truth, looked into a mirror at an enigma (δι εσοπτρον εν αινιγματι): and multitudes of them were “corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” But when the Body becomes a Man—“A PERFECT MAN”—as represented by “the Son of Man in the midst of the Seven Lightstands with the Seven Stars in his right hand,” in the post-resurrectional state of holiness, then there are no childish things found with it. Then every saint of the body will be in accord, seeing faee to face, or eye to eye. Distribution of gifts to individuals only will not recur; and the body will no more be divided into spirituals and privates. Then all will be official and spiritual; and the idiotai subject to their jurisdiction, will be Israel and the Nations. Every individual member of the Perfect Man, will be omniscient, and omnipotent; for this Man was revealed to John as “He who is coming, THE ALMIGHTY.” There will be no knowing p. 165 εκ μερους from parts then; for all the elements of the Perfect Man will be equally wise, and equally knowing; and the enigma, which is now revealed as a word and testimony, called “the Word of the Deity, and the Testimony of Jesus Anointed,” on account of which John was in banishment,—this enigma, as Paul styles it, will then be practically solved in the eyes of all nations.

We have already shown the great and essential difference which exists between “church” and “ecclesia.” The former is apocalyptically styled “the Synagogue of Satan.” It is a clerical institution, existing for the advantage and behoof of certain theological empirics, who incompetently undertake to “cure souls” for a decent and respectable living in the world. This satanic institution has had its childhood, youth, and perfect manhood in Satan; and is now tottering upon its staff in the feebleness and idiotcy of extreme senility. The reader will please not confound any thing we have said about the childhood and perfect manhood of the Body of Christ, with any ideas he may have about the Body of Satan, called “church.” This church is no illustration in any part of its history of the things spoken by Paul, which we have been considering. Its officials are “the spirituals of the wickedness of the darkness” which overspreads the habitable, when the lightstands were extinguished for the want of oil. The Body of Christ still lived, animated by “faith, hope, and love,” which remained after the gifts were removed, but suffering, bleeding, and struggling for existence, until Satan’s officials “prevailed against it,” and crucified it, but were not permitted to bury it. It laid in the death-state “three days and a half,” and when these expired, it rose again (Rev. xi. 7-12; and lives to die no more, but to bear witness to the truth until the resurrection. But, though it exists, it cannot be identified by a clergyman, or clergyman’s disciples. A man must come to the understanding of “the gospel of the kingdom” promised in the prophets, and preached by Jesus and the apostles, before he will have intelligence enough to discern the Body of Christ. When he understands that, he will know that the “Names and Denominations” of “the Religious World” are a miserably executed counterfeit of the true, and current only with such as are indifferent to, or ignorant of the truth.

The mystery, or meaning, then, of the Seven Lightstands is, that they represent the sevenfold ecclesia; and of the Seven Stars is, that they are symbolical of the Elderships anointed with the Spirit, and shining with the gifts. While an anointed eldership was a lightstand to a particular ecclesia; this ecclesia was itself a lightstand to the pagan and rabinnical darkness on every side. But in the future state, no such distinction will obtain; for that which is “from parts” being p. 166 nonexistent, and every saint “shining as the sun;” or, “as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars in the Olahm and beyond” (Mat. xiii. 43; Dan. xii. 3.) The Sevenfold Ecclesia, as the Perfect Man, will be the Seven-Branched Golden Lightstand of the Earth. How brilliant then will be the illumination of the world; the whole earth will indeed be enlightened by the glory.

5. “The Son of Man”

Son of Man is a title bestowed upon “the Perfect Man” to indicate his origin. Son expresses the idea of emanation; hence, that seen in the midst of the lightstands, as their stem or shaft, as it were, was an emanation from the race of Adam—Son of Man. “Israel is my Son, my First-born.” In this declaration to Pharaoh, a nation of some three millions of people, is styled the First-born Son of Yahweh; hence, the reader will find no difficulty in comprehending that the Son of Man in the midst of the lightstands was the form of a man representing a multitude of individuals taken by some certain process from the human race. This is indicated by the symbol itself; for John speaking of its voice loud as a trumpet, says, “his voice was as a sound of many waters;” and the apocalyptic waters are defined as importing “peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.” His voice was the voice of an election from these, saying, “thou hast purchased us for the Deity with thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation; and made us for our Deity kings and priests, and we shall reign over the earth”—ch. v. 9, 10; xvii. 15.

This idea of a multitudinous Son of Man is clearly exhibited in Dan. vii. 13, in the words, “I was seeing in the vision of the night, and behold there was coming with clouds of heavens like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him; And to him was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and tongues, should serve him: his dominion is a dominion of Olahm which shall not pass away; and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” Here the clouds of heavens constitute the Son of Man, who is brought before the Ancient of Days, when “they” who compose him, themselves come into His presence. The Ancient of Days is “the Lord the Spirit,” the “Quickening Spirit,” the Logos in David’s Flesh, who is the Head of this Son of Man. In the fourteenth verse, the kingdom is said to be given to the Son of Man; and in verses 18, 22, and 27, it is said to be given to the Saints of the עליונין Elyonin, Most High Ones; as, “the Saints of the Most p. 167 High Ones shall receive the kingdom, and shall possess the kingdom for the Olahm, even during an Olahm of Olahms,” or during the Millennium. And as in verse 22, the Horn prevailed against the Saints “until that the Ancient of Days came; and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High Ones, and the time came and the saints possessed the kingdom:” and in the twenty-seventh verse, “and the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under all the heavens shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High Ones, whose kingdom is the kingdom of Olahm (the Millennium) and all the dominions shall serve and obey him.” If a kingdom be given to A, and the same kingdom at the same time be given to Z: then A and Z are one and the same, though called by different letters of the alphabet. This is the argument of the texts before us—the Millennial kingdom is given to the Son of Man; it is also given at the same time to the Saints; therefore “the Son of Man” and “the Saints” are but different phrases for one and the same thing.

Daniel and John both introduce a Son of Man as a similitude; they tell us that what they saw was ὁμοιον υἱῳ[?] a thing like to a Son of Man. It had the exterior form of a man; but from the description of parts anything than the exact counterpart of a man. The only place where the same similitude is again introduced is in Rev. xiv. 14, where John says, he saw “a white cloud;” and then, in order to show what the cloud represented, he tells us he beheld “upon the cloud sitting like to a Son of Man, having upon his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” This is the similitude of the cloud of saints ready to reap the harvest of the earth, and to tread the winepress without the city; they are styled “a white cloud,” because white is the raiment with which they are everywhere invested as the apocalyptic emblem of conquest and righteousness. The head of the similitude is crowned to indicate that the Son of Man similitude is a Body Politic of Kings.

The similitude exhibited to Daniel in ch. vii. 9, 10, has reference to the same subject as John’s. Daniel was attracted principally to the Head, the rest of the body being concealed by “a garment white as snow.” The head of the similitude represents “the Ancient of Days;” “the hair of the head being like the pure wool.” Daniel and John’s symbols agree in this. White as snow, and pure wool, are emblems of purity: scarlet and crimson redness are representative of sin. Thus, it is written, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”—Isai. i. 18. The wool of the symbol connects it with the Lamb p. 168 of Rev. v. 6. “as it had been slain” in which are the Seven Eyes of Deity. The other particulars of John’s Son of Man are merged in the following scenery of Daniel’s vision: “His throne the fiery flame, his wheels burning fire. A stream of fire flowing and issuing from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and a myriad myriads stood before him: the judgment was set, and books were opened.” The white garment indicates the priestly and righteous character of the body clothed thereby; all of which are justified, and priests as well as conquering kings for God.

When it was revealed to Daniel in ch. viii. 14, that the holy should be avenged “after 2300 years had passed away; he fell into the death state and revived, to signify that the vengeance would be after the resurrection. At that time also he says, “Behold, there stood before me as the Appearance of a Man; and I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Understand, O Son of Man; for at the time of the end the vision is.” Here Daniel is made to personate the Son of Man. He was lying on his face in a deep sleep at the time, but when touched, he stood up as the Son of Man raised from the dead, ready to hear about the breaking of the Little Horn at the epoch of vengeance by the Prince of princes.

Again, the apocalyptic Son of Man appears to Daniel by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel, as narrated in ch. x. 5. In the English Version, he is said to have beheld “a certain man.” This phrase in the original is אישׁ־אחד ish-ekhād, MAN OF ONE. It was not a real man he beheld; but, as he styles it in ver. 18, “the Appearance of a Man;” and in ver. 16, “like the Similitude of the Sons of Adam.” It was a symbolical, or shadowy representation of the Man of the One Eternal Spirit. It was, therefore, truly “a certain man,” not an uncertain, or indefinite, one. John, the Baptizer, “saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a Dove;” and Daniel, and John, the apostle, beheld the same Spirit, “like the similitude of the Sons of Adam,” or, “like to a Son of Man.”

Now, the description Daniel gives of this symbol,^a or SPIRIT-FORM is, that “He was clothed in linen, and his loins girded with fine gold of Uphaz. His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms. and p. 169 his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.” He saw this in Eden, by “the third” of its rivers, “the Hiddekel,” where “the Cherubim and devouring fire” were originally located—Gen. ii. 14; iii. 24. The reason why the locality of the vision is specified, is to acquaint the reader with the region of the earth where the glory of the Spirit Man is to be revealed. The general description of the two symbols being before the reader, I shall proceed now to examine them more in detail, commencing with the intimation, that the similitude was

6. “Clothed to the Feet”

While Daniel informs us that the Spirit-Man he beheld, was “clothed with linen,” John states simply, that he was “clothed to the feet.” Now, this clothing is significant of the character and office of the persons represented by the symbol. The holy garments of Aaron and his sons were of linen, “to cover their nakedness,” that when they ministered in the holy places, “they bear not iniquity, and die”—Exod. xxviii. 42. “Nakedness,” and “iniquity,” are convertible terms in scripture; as it is written, “when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked to their shame,”—that is, they had transgressed in worshipping the golden calf: “blessed is he that keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” Hence, to be “clothed,” and to keep the clothing white, and clean, is to be “righteous,” or holy. When Adam sinned, “he knew that he was naked,” and he was ashamed, and afraid; but the Spirit appointed for clothing skins of sacrifices, and his sin was covered. Hence, “blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered,” or clothed. Joshua, son of Josedec, a type of Jesus in the flesh, is first introduced as clothed with filthy garments, representative of the flesh with its propensities and lusts; but when the type is changed to represent Jesus in pneuma hagiosunes,—that is, in Holy Spirit Nature, such as he acquired after resurrection, Joshua’s raiment is represented as being changed—“Take away,” says the Spirit, “the filthy garments from him.” When this was done, then the Spirit addresses him, and says, “I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” And when the time came to do it—to clothe Jesus, and all in him; symbolized in Joshua, and “his Fellows,” “they set a fair mitre (or priestly crown) upon his head, and clothed him with garments.” These are indicated in the visions of John and Daniel—Zech. iii. 3-10.

“I put on righteousness,” says Job, “and it clothed me;” and in Psalm cxxxii. 9, “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness.” In p. 170 Rev. xix. 8, it is said of the community, styled “the Lamb’s Wife,” that “to her it was given, that she should be arrayed in fine linen, pure, and bright.” Now, they who constitute “the woman,” are “called, and chosen, and faithful”—Rev. xvii.14; “they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth”—xiv. 4; as his clouds of cavalry, “clothed in fine linen, white, and pure,” which is declared to be “the Righteousness of the Saints—ch. xix. 14, 8; who are “purchased from among men,” and made for Deity “kings and priests to reign over the earth.” The multitude, symbolized by the Son of Man, attains to this dominion through much tribulation, and by resurrection. When they stand up they have obtained the victory over death and the grave, through him that loved them, and laid down his life for them: they are therefore represented in ch. vii. as “clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands”—robes “washed, and made white in the blood of the Lamb.” Hence, these are robes of salvation and victory. In their mortal state, they put on Christ as a robe, when, having “believed the things of the kingdom of the Deity, and the Name of Jesus Anointed,” they were immersed for that name, and into it. They fall asleep in him; and they arise to partake of the nature of his individual “body, of his flesh, and of his bones,” that they may be like him—1 Jno. iii. 2. When they are clothed with this Spirit-Nature, they are “clothed upon with their habitation, which is from heaven—mortality being swallowed up under the life or spirit that is poured upon them”—2 Cor. v. 2, 4. This is the consummation of their investiture, which begins with their immersion into Christ, and is perfected in their postresurrectional immortalization by the Spirit through Jesus. They are then the Body Corporate of God’s Kings and Priests, the inhabitation of Eternal Wisdom and Power, clothed in the linen garment of righteousness, honor, majesty, and salvation. Then Zion will have clothed herself with them all as with an ornament, and have bound them on as a bride—Isa. xlix. 18; lxi. 10; Psalm cxxxii. 16; civ. 1.

The reader will understand, then, that the linen clothing of these symbols indicates the persons, their character, office, and nature, of which they are representatives. A glorious body of people prepared to execute righteous judgment upon the nations, and to govern them in righteousness when subdued—the Son of Man in glory and great power.

7. The Golden Zone

The “Perfect Man,” seen by John, was “clothed with a garment down to the Foot;” no elemental part of him was unclothed; but each p. 171 had on his wedding garment, clean, and white, so that in this glorious Son of Man no nakedness could be discerned.

The next item that arrested John’s attention in the glorious apparel of this royal and priestly man, was a Zone of Gold encircling his breast, or, in the words of the English Version, he was “girt about the paps with a golden girdle.” This would answer to a breastband rather than to a girdle, which in the dress of. the ancients belonged to the loins. But Josephus says that the priests wore the girdle upon their breasts, under their arms; that a kind of flower work was there represented, with threads of purple, scarlet, and hyacinth; that it went twice round the body, was tied before, and the ends hung down to the feet. When they were in the act of sacrificing, they threw this girdle over the left shoulder, that they might perform their office with the greater freedom. This, however, cannot have been the “embroidered girdle.” This was attached to the Ephod’s lower margin, and below the breastplate of judgment, and could not have been thrown over the left shoulder without removing the whole ephod and its appendages. What Josephus refers to must have been something else than “the girdle of the ephod.” This was made of “gold, blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.” These articles represented principles afterwards to be incarnated in the High Priest after the Order of Melchizedec. Aaron wore the representations upon his person; Jesus bore them in himself. The gold represents the wisdom of a tried and precious faith; blue, a cleansing principle; purple, the element of flesh; scarlet, the sin thereof; and fine twined linen, righteousness. These principles were embodied in Jesus, as “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners,” as to character; yet “the likeness of sin’s flesh, in whom sin was condemned” when crucified, as to nature; and the purifier unto righteousness of those who become the righteousness of the Deity in and through him. The gold and fine twined linen were embroidered through all the blue, purple, and scarlet, of this “curious” breastband with which the breasts were girded; so in the case of Jesus, though “made sin for us, he knew no sin,” “yet was he tempted in all points like as we are, but without transgression;” wisdom and righteousness were intertwined in all his words and actions, according to the type. Thus “the body or substance is of Christ”—Exod. xxviii. 2-21; Rom. viii. 3; 2 Cor. v. 21; Heb. ii. 14; iv. 15; Col. ii. 17; 1 Pet. ii. 24.

But when Jesus and his Brethren shall all have attained to the divine nature, even as Jesus hath already, the gold and the linen of the girdle will alone remain. The blue, the purple, and the scarlet, make no part of the garments for glory and for beauty of the Son of man, as beheld by John, because what John saw pertains not to the sufferings, but to p. 172 the glory of the Christ, or Anointed Body. In regard to the girdle, Daniel tells us, that the Spirit-Man symbolized to him was “girded with fine gold of Uphaz.” This Uphaz is the Ophir of other passages. In the days of the prophets it was the gold region of the earth, whence the most abundant supplies of the finest gold were obtained. The Mosaic “patterns of things in the heavens” were all of gold, or of precious woods overlaid with gold. Mere “wood, hay, or stubble” found no place there, any more than “in the heavens” themselves. The Cherubim, the Ark of the Testimony, the Mercy Seat, the Altar of Incense, the Seven-Branched Lampstand, the Table of Shew Bread, spoons, tongs, censers, hinges, staves, and so forth, were all of gold, or overlaid with gold. And beside all this, “the holy garments for glory and for beauty,” worn by the High Priest, who officiated in this temple resplendent with gold, were brilliant with the shining metal and precious stones. Gold was chosen as the most precious of all known metals, to represent the most precious of “heavenly things” before the Eternal Spirit, namely, FAITH PERFECTED BY TRIAL, which is “much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be refined by fire;” and “without which it is impossible to please God”—Heb. xi. 6; James ii. 22; 1 Pet. i. 7; 2 Pet. i. 1. It is the basis of righteousness unto life eternal; for “we are justified by faith;” the fine linen robe of righteousness is girded about the saints by the golden girdle of a tried faith. “When God hath tried me,” saith Job, “I shall come forth as gold.” Thus David, in celebrating the future glory of the New Order of Elohim, consisting of the King and his Brethren, styles the latter “the Queen,” in Psal. xlv. 10, saying to His Majesty, “the Queen hath been placed at thy right in fine gold of Ophir.” He then addresses the Consort of the Great King, who, being the Eternal Spirit manifested in David’s Son, is both Father and Husband of the Bride, (thy maker is thine Husband; Yahweh Tz’vahoth is his name; the Elohim of the whole earth shall He be called—Isa. liv. 5,) saying, “Hear, O Daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; and forget thy nation, and the house of thy father; and the King shall greatly desire thy beauty; for He is thy Lord, therefore do thou homage unto him. So the Daughter of Tyre with tribute, the rich of the people, shall supplicate thy favor. The Daughter of the King is all glorious within; her clothing is of interweavings of gold; in embroideries she shall be conducted to thee; the Virgins, her companions, following her, shall be brought to thee. They shall be conducted with joyous shouts and exultation; they shall enter into the palace of the King.”

Thus David sings of “the Spirit and the Bride,” clothed in the holy garments of righteousness and of a tried and perfected faith, for glory p. 173 and for beauty. They are apocalyptically represented as “like a Son of Man;” as “a great city,” styled “the Holy City, New Jerusalem, having been prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband;” “a city of pure gold, like to transparent crystal;” “the precious sons of Zion,” saith the prophet, “are comparable to fine gold;” for in their glory they are the Spirit-Incarnations of a tried and precious faith, which is the shining girdle of their ephod.

8. His Head and the Hairs

John says that the head and the hairs of the similitude he saw were “white, as it were wool, white as snow.” This appearance identifies it with Daniel’s “Ancient of Days,” the hair of whose head was “like the pure wool.” Now, in regard to the head, Paul says, “I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God”—1 Cor. xi. 3; and in Eph. v. 23, he says, “the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Ecclesia; and He is the Saviour of the Body.” The apocalyptic Son of man is the body, and Jesus Anointed occupies the position of Head to that body. This is the reason why the head is represented as invested with the appearance of wool, white as snow. The whiteness represents the purity of the head, and the wool that head’s relation to “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world;” and primarily the sin of those who constitute the community represented by the Son of man, of whom it may be said, that they had washed them in the blood of the Lamb, and made them clean; and that “though their sins were as scarlet they had become white as snow; and though they were red like crimson they had become as wool”—Isa. i. 16, 18. Thus the snow-white wool becomes the emblem of the purity of the whole body in Christ when “presented to himself a glorious ecclesia, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but holy and without blemish”—Eph. v. 27.

9. His Eyes as a Flame of Fire

The eye is the symbol of intelligence, for “the light of the body is the eye.” The nature of the intelligence in predominant activity is expressed by the character of the symbol; hence an eye as a flame of fire, indicates intelligence in wrathful activity. The word for “eye” in the Hebrew also signifies “fountain;” because tears are welled up from the eye as water from a fountain or spring. Hence the eyes of p. 174 the Man of Multitude are fountains of flaming fire; they pour out flame as “a fiery stream,” and he becomes “a consuming fire.”

There is nothing beneficent in symbolic flame. This will appear from the use of the term in all parts of scripture. Speaking of Dathan and Abiram, as examples of divine indignation, David says, in Ps. cvi. 18, “a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.” Isaiah in treating of the overthrow of the kingdom of men under its last head in our near future, says, “YAHWEH, Yahweh Tz’vahoth, shall send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And the Light of Israel shall be for a fire, and His Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briars in one day. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon YAHWEH, the Holy One of Israel in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the Mighty Hero—אל גבּור, ail givbor—ch. x. 16-21. In this testimony “the Light of Israel” is the Logos of John; He is the fire; and his flame is the Holy One symbolized by the Son of man with his eyes as a flame of fire. This is the Mighty Hero to whom Jacob shall return.

Again, in speaking of the coming of the NAME OF YAHWEH, the same prophet says, in ch. xxx. 27, “Behold, THE NAME OF YAHWEH cometh from afar, His anger burning, and its vehemence a conflagration; His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: and his breath as an overflowing stream shall reach to the neck, to scatter the nations with the fan of destruction.” This name of YAHWEH is apocalypsed in John’s similitude, the flame of whose eyes is poured forth as a stream of fire to effect what is here testified by Isaiah.

Many other passages might be adduced illustrating the significance of symbolic flame whether it be streaming from the eyes, or glowing about the feet; but these are sufficient at present to show that the mission of the company symbolized by the Son of man is not of peace, but a mission of judgment and retribution upon the nations of the earth.