Section I
1. The Title
“A revelation of Jesus Anointed which the Deity committed to him to exhibit to his servants things which must be speedily accomplished,”—Apoc. i. 1.
ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ, apokalupsis, is the first word of the last book of the New Testament in Greek. The book is, therefore, in that language styled, Apokalupsis. But this name is not restricted to the original. It is very often employed in speaking and writing as the title, or name, of the book in the English; although it is not so designated in the common Version. It is styled in this “The Revelation;” which, indeed, expresses the truth; for the book is a revelation, and one specially imparted: but still, the name is objectionable, inasmuch as it is only a very small part of revelation; nevertheless, small as it is, a most important, and highly interesting, portion thereof. To distinguish it, therefore, from revelation in general, many are accustomed to anglicize the Greek name, and to style it THE APOCALYPSE. For this reason, which appears sufficient, I have concluded to adopt it also; so that the reader of this volume will understand, that when “the Apocalypse” is named, that book of scripture is meant, which in the English Version is called “The Revelation of St. John the Divine.”
Though published by “special command of the Most High and Mighty Prince, James, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland; and Defender of the Faith;” and “appointed to be read in Churches”—the reader must not suppose, that the words “The Revelation of Saint John the Divine,” are the divinely authorized inscription. The Holy Spirit does not speak in this style, even of an apostle. It is only “The Apostasy,” so conspicuously exhibited in The p. 10 Apocalypse, that confers titles upon the Fishermen of Galilee, and their brethren, to give them sanctity and respectability in the estimation of the kings and princes of the world. The Apostasy uses the words “saint” and “divine” as applicable only to “Christians,” who have attained sanctimonious preëminence among their fellows; and who are skilled in “divinity,” and have received ordination, and a license to preach. But these words are not so used in scripture. Saint is there applied to all that are separated, or made holy, by the blood of the covenant; as it is written, “Gather my saints together unto me: those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice”—Psal. l. 5: “having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience (by the blood of sprinkling, Heb. xii. 24) and their bodies washed with pure water”—Heb. x. 22. The sprinkling of heart, and the washing of body, are common to all in Christ, whether apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, or private persons. In apostolic times, these were all saints, or “the faithful in Christ Jesus”—1 Cor. i. 2; Col. i. 2. There was then no canonization of obedient believing men and women into saints: all who believed and obeyed “the truth as it is in Jesus,” in that obedience became saints and children of the Most High.
The apostle John had no titles. He was neither “Saint John” nor “John the Divine.” He was one of the saints in Christ Jesus; but not “Saint,” as an ecclesiastical title of honor and distinction. He might as well have been styled King John or Priest John; for he was not only a saint, but a king and a priest for God. Ecclesiastical titles are of the pride of life, and not of God. They are assumptions of lordship over the saints; and strictly forbidden by their Prince. “Ye are all brethren; and the greater of you shall be servant”—Matt. xxiii. 8, 11. This is the spirit of Christ, who, although the Teacher, and Lord, was as one who served. The reverse of this is the spirit of Antichrist. Wherever, therefore, men professing to be Christians, exalt themselves, or allow themselves to be exalted, to high ecclesiastical estate, there is “the mark of the beast,” and there “the number of his name.” All this sort of thing was repudiated with contempt by the apostles, after they were converted and became as little children—Matt. xviii. 3. “Be of the same mind towards one another; not minding high things, but being conducted with the despised”—Rom. xii. 16. This was the doctrine they inculcated, and practised; and in so doing, though dead, still speak reprehending the unhallowed ambition of those who pretend to have succeeded them in all but their penury and woe—1 Cor. xv. 19; 2 Ep. xi. 21-28.
The apostle John is the only one upon whom The Apostasy has conferred the title of “the Divine.” Paul, James, Peter, and Jude are p. 11 termed simply apostles, or messengers; while the messenger John is, as an especial honor, erected into ὁ θεολογος, the Theologian, or “Divine!” “Was it imagined that he was Professor of Divinity in a Theological Seminary at Jerusalem; or, was it because he has narrated the discourses of Jesus on the relations of the Father and the Son, which are not found in the other testimonies? Whatever may have been the reason, it must of necessity be infinitely puerile. None of the apostles had any thing to do with what King James’s flatterers and courtiers call “divinity,” or “theology,” but to condemn it as a corruption of “the faith once delivered to the saints.” They denounced it as “profane, and old wives’ fables;” and its professors as “seducing spirits” and “demons,” “unruly and vain talkers, and deceivers.” Paul the Divine, Peter the Divine, or John the Divine, are epithets that desecrate the renown of the noble men whose names are thus entitled. John had no divine pretensions over Peter and Paul. James, Peter, and John were “pillars,” and Paul was not a whit behind them; for He that wrought effectually in Peter, was also mighty in him. They made no ostentatious display of their names; and in themselves claimed to be no more than weak earthen vessels, in whose feebleness and frailty the glory and power of God became more strikingly manifest. The Holy Spirit was the holy oil of their earthen lamps. By it they were guided into all the truth; and the light which shone around them was of that anointing, not of them.
“The Revelation of Saint John the Divine” is a spurious title. The real inscription is contained in the first words of the book—αποκαλυψις Ιησου Χριστου, Apokalupsis Jesou Christou, REVELATION OF JESUS ANOINTED. The contents of the book did not come to John direct from God. They emanated from Him “who dwells in light,” who had hitherto reserved them in his own power—Acts i. 7. Till this emanation they were sealed up, and “known to no man, no not the angels in heaven, NOR THE SON, but the Father”—Mark xiii. 32. Jesus affirmed this want of knowledge with reference to his apocalypse. “Watch ye therefore,” he continued; “for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.”
This universal ignorance of “the Times and Seasons” is the subject of one of the scenes of this book. In chap. v. i. The Apocalypse is represented as a book in the right hand of God completely sealed up. When John saw the book, he heard a loud voice inquiring, “Who is worthy to unroll the scroll, and to loose its seals?” But no man or angel came forward. “And no man,” says John, “in the heaven, nor upon the earth, nor under the earth, was able to unroll the scroll, nor to p. 12 see it.” John was exceedingly distressed at this. The words and the book that Daniel had been commanded to shut up and seal (ch. xii. 4, 9) no man in the heaven, earth, or grave, was found worthy or able to open. Therefore John wept exceedingly. “I wept much,” says he, “because no man was found worthy to unroll and read the scroll, nor to see it.”
The book remained thus concealed with God until the time of John’s residence in the Isle of Patmos. He was there, he tells us, “on account of the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” He was in tribulation, and doubtless “wept much,” both on account of his sufferings, and his inability to say “how long to the end of the times”—Dan. xii. 6, 8; when the Lord Jesus should appear in his kingdom—i. 9. But, at this crisis, a Messenger reached his place of exile, whom he styles “one of the elders,” a constituent of the symbolic twenty-four, ch. iv. 4; v. 8, 9—and said to him, “Weep not: Behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to unroll the scroll, and to loose its seals”—v. 5.
Thus “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” is brought before the reader as the only personage from among the dead, or among the living, who could open the words and unseal the mystery of God, as he hath declared the glad tidings to his servants the prophets—x. 7. That mystery required the cutting asunder a covenant for the covering of iniquity; and for causing to come in a righteousness of Aions—Dan. ix. 24. In other words, “Messiah the Prince” had to be cut off; and so to be made a covenant of, according to the saying, “I will give thee for a covenant of the people”—Isai. xlii. 6; xlix. 8. Until this were accomplished no practical solution could be given of the end. Had the Second Adam failed to establish his worthiness, like the first, John’s weeping would never have been assuaged. But Jesus did “prevail:” for, though in all points tempted as we are, according to the likeness of his nature to ours, yet he did not sin. Though a Son, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. He was made perfect through sufferings, having been obedient unto death. He kept his body under, triumphing over its lusts; and, though sorely tried, he yielded not, but evolved a character that was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners—Heb. ii. 10, 14, 16; iv. 15; v. 2, 7-9; vii. 26. When he died, he was delivered from death, and now lives for evermore. Death hath no more dominion over him. For he had power to lay down his life, and to take it up again; a commandment which he had received of the Father. This he did; and in so doing, abolished the power of death, having led captivity captive, and brought to light the life and incorruptibility of the gospel of the kingdom—Psal. lxviii. 18; Eph. iv. 8; 2 Tim. i. 10.
p. 13 Having established his worthiness in this moral conflict with the world and the flesh, God accepted him as the most excellent of all the intelligences of his universe; and in consequence gave to him what no one else possessed, namely, power to unroll the scroll and to loose its seals. The Apocalypse is therefore styled, “A Revelation of Jesus Anointed which the Deity committed to him.” Now, Jesus Anointed is Power, or Spirit, manifested in flesh, and justified in Spirit—1 Tim. iii. 16: or, “Made of the seed of David according to flesh; and constituted Son of God in power, according to spirit of holiness, out of a resurrection of dead ones”—Rom. i. 3. 4: and therefore styled “the Lord the Spirit,” or “a life-imparting Spirit”—1 Cor. xv. 45; 2 Cor. iii. 17, 18. Here are Spirit and Flesh. The Spirit is Theos, or Deity; the Flesh was the Son of Mary, and named Jesus; and when anointed with Spirit again at his resurrection, became Jesus Christ, or the Anointed Jesus. This anointing was his begettal of spirit by which he became Spirit; as he said to Nicodemus, “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”—John iii. 6. The Eternal Spirit, then, imparted to Jesus, after his glorification, the times, and seasons, and mode, and circumstances of his reappearance upon earth; all of which constituted a revelation such as he had not yet been the subject of. It is a revelation of Jesus Christ very unlike the revelation of the man of sorrows acquainted with grief. This was a revelation of the Son promised to Israel and David’s house, as a helpless babe, born in a stable and cradled in a manger; as a fugitive in the earth, escaping from the sword of power; as a mechanic, laboring at the bench for his daily bread; as a preacher of righteousness, denouncing the hypocrisy and blasphemy of the clergy; and calling upon the people to renounce the traditions of their blind guides; and to become enlightened in the wisdom from above; as a man persecuted for righteousness’ sake by the pious and the powerful of the Church and State; as a man accused of blasphemy, sorcery, and perversion of the people; as an alleged enemy to God, and a traitor to kings reigning by his grace; as a man, in fine, adjudged “guilty of death,” and worthy only of being “numbered with transgressors,” and ignominiously executed with thieves. Such was the revelation of “Messiah the Prince” in Heaven’s gift of him “for a Covenant of the People,” which has now for many centuries been presented to the nations in New Testament history, and memorialized in the ecclesiasticism of the Beast.
“Messiah the Prince,” or High Priest, was “cut off,” or covenanted, as the Spirit had revealed to Daniel. But before he died, he cried with a loud voice, in the words of Psal. xxii. 1., saying, אלי אלי, Ai’li, Aili “My strength, my strength, why hast thou forsaken me!” Before he p. 14 had uttered this exclamation, the Holy Spirit, which had descended upon him from the Habitation of Light and Power, in the form of a dove, and rested upon him, from the time of his immersion in the Jordan, had been withdrawn. The Father-Spirit had evacuated the son of David’s daughter, who is styled, in the Songs of Zion, “the Handmaid of Jehovah,” Psal. cxvi. 16. The Son was, therefore, left without strength or power, and consequently without God. Still he was suspended to the tree a living man; a man crucified through weakness (2 Cor. xiii. 4), and dying of his own volition in obedience to God. But after the God-Power had forsaken him, and before he committed his life to the Father in breathing his last, there was an interval in which, after the example of Abraham at the typical confirmation of the covenant, “a horror of great darkness fell upon him” (Gen. xv. 12); “for there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.” In this darkness he cried aloud; and drank the bitterness of gall and vinegar; and again cried with a loud voice; and the deep sleep fell upon him from which he did not awake until the early dawn of the third day.
In this death-state the Son of David was prevailed against by the Little Horn of Daniel’s Fourth Beast; and a prisoner of captivity. In this crisis he was neither God nor Spirit: but as testified concerning him in Psal. xxii. 6, “A worm and no man;” poured out like water; bones all out of joint; heart like wax, melted in the midst of the bowels. Strength dried up like a potsherd; tongue cleaving to the jaws; lying in the dust of death—vers. 14, 15. But things were only to remain thus for a short space. The man Jesus, who had left behind him a character which the Father-Spirit acknowledged as His own, had been too excellent and admirable a person to be abandoned to the power of the enemy. The corpse rested, waiting to become the basis, or ὑποστασις, hypostasis, of a new revelation—a new, or further, revelation of Spirit. The Father-Spirit had been manifesting himself for three years and a half, terminating at the crucifixion, in word and deed; teaching great truths, and working mighty wonders and signs which Omnipotence alone could operate; this was Spirit-revelation through Mary’s Son—“Power manifested in flesh.” But a Spirit-revelation was to be given to the BODY REPAIRED (σωμα κατηρτισω μοι, a body thou repairedst for me—Heb. x. 5. A breach had been made in it. Its “loins were filled with a loathsome disease: and there was no soundness in its flesh”—Psal. xxxviii. 7. This was its condition while prostrate and hidden in the noisome pit (Ps. xl. 2) beneath the turf. But though sealed up in Joseph’s cave, it was not concealed from the Father-Spirit, who had so recently forsaken it. Walls, and seals, and soldiers, could not bar out the Spirit from the Body he was about to repair for future manifestations.
p. 15 Hence the Spirit in David represents the Son as saying, “My body was not concealed from thee when I was made in the secret place; I was embroidered in the under parts of the earth. Thine eyes saw my imperfect substance; and in thy book all of them were written as to the days they were fashioned, when there was not one among them,” Psal. cxxxix. 15.
The Body was repaired, and in its being freed from the loathsomeness of death, it was created a Spiritual Body with all the embroidery of spirit. “It was sown in corruption,” though “not permitted to see corruption;” it was raised in incorruptibility: it was sown in dishonor, it was raised in glory; it was sown in weakness, it was raised in power; it was sown a soul-body, it was raised a spirit-body,” incorruptible, glorious, and powerful: εγενετο ὁ εσχατος Αδαμ εις πνευμα, the last Adam was made into spirit; he was freed from all those qualities of body which make our human nature inferior to the nature of angels; and acquired new ones, by which the nature he now rejoices in is so intimately combined with the Father-Spirit, that what is affirmed of the one is true also of the other, according to what is written in John x. 30, 38, “I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE;” the Father is in me, and I in him.” “This is the true Theos, and the Aion-Life,” 1 John v. 20, and therefore he is styled by Paul, “the Lord, the Spirit,” imparting life. 1 Cor xv. 42-45.
Now, though the world has witnessed the revelation which Light and Power gave to David’s Son in the days of his psychical, or soul-body, commonly styled “his flesh;” it has never seen the apocalypse predetermined and recorded for manifestation through the pneumatical or spirit-body, begotten from among the dead. This revelation has been imparted to the glorified Jesus, to the once-dead body now anointed with spirit with which the Deity has sealed him.” John vi. 27. “A revelation of Jesus anointed which God gave to him;” not to be held as a secret with himself, which no other intelligences should know, until the things revealed should burst upon the world, and take even the saints at unawares. This was not the purpose for which it was given to him; simply, as it were, to make the Son equal in knowledge with the Father; and more intelligent than the angels in heaven. It was given to him as “The Head of the Body the Ecclesia; the Beginning, the first begotten from among the dead, that he might be among all preëminent; for it pleased that in him all the fulness should dwell.” Col. i. 18. He was to be the depository of wisdom, knowledge, and power for the heirs of the world. The apocalypse of his future was given to him for their benefit, that they might know the things which must be accomplished speedily. The inscription therefore reads, “A Revelation of Jesus p. 16 anointed which God gave to him to show to his servants things which must come to pass speedily.” The revelation was only intended for these. It was not communicated for the information of the wicked; for it had long before been noted in the scriptures of truth that “None of the wicked should understand.” Dan. xii. 10. “To the wicked, God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.” Psal. l. 16.
Who are the Servants of God
From this testimony we learn that “the wicked” are a larger class than is generally supposed. They are not restricted to murderers, drunkards, thieves, and the licentious. The wicked are to a great extent very pious and religious people. They have “a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” Being ignorant of God’s righteousness, they go about with great diligence and at enormous cost, to establish their own righteousness, not having submitted to God’s. They compass sea and land to make proselytes; they make long prayers; sing with sweetest music the praises of him they profess to worship. The world is full of their piety; for it is fashionable to be religious, or rather to “profess religion;” so that Christianity is thought to be habited in “fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet;” to walk in silver sandals; and to be “adorned with pearls and precious stones.” Apoc. xviii. 12. But, be this as it may, there is a characteristic of wickedness which no sect, party, name, or denomination, regarded as “orthodox,” can repudiate as inapplicable to itself. That characteristic is, “THOU CASTEST MY WORDS BEHIND THEE,” saith God. No man, sect, or party, can offer a greater insult to Jehovah than this; for it is testified, that He hath magnified his word above all the attributes of his name; Psal. cxxxviii. 4; and it was foretold in commendation of Messiah, that when he should be revealed, he would “magnify the law and make it honorable.” Isai. xlii. 21. “I came not,” said he, “to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil; for the heaven and earth may pass away, but not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” He continually impressed upon his hearers the necessity of believing the words of God, and of doing his commands: and never ceased to make the “obedience of faith” the test of men’s devotion and affection for him. “If ye love me,” saith he, “keep my commandments;” and “ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you;” for “love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Now these are principles which no sophistry or reasoning can set aside. They are as true to-day as when they fell from the lips of him who gave utterance to the words of God.” “My words,” saith he, “are p. 17 spirit and life;” and Moses has testified, saying, that whosoever would not hearken unto Jehovah’s words which he should speak in his name, He would require it of him.” Deut. xviii. 15-19. The reader may profess to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is he to whom Moses referred; for, Jesus said, “He wrote concerning me.” But does the reader know what the Father commanded the prophet like unto Moses to speak in his name? If he know it, does he believe it? And if he believe the things spoken, has he obeyed them? To believe and do is the only evidence a man can give that he does not cast Jehovah’s words behind him. “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Hear this, ye bishops, priests, and ministers! Hear this, all ye eloquent “divines,” and leaders of the people! All ye scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, whose garb, grimace, and tone, are the counterfeit of wool to disguise the ravening wolf! Hear this, all ye zealots of the world religious; this question is for you who call Jesus, Lord, and do not the things which he says! Deny not the truth of the indictment; for your “names and denominations,” in their creeds, institutions, and practices, are standing memorials of your guilt. Do ye know what the glad tidings were Jesus was anointed to preach to the poor? Do ye know what that kingdom was whose gospel he announced? What was that acceptable year of Jehovah he proclaimed? Can ye define that righteousness of God attested by the law and the prophets, he exhorted men to seek with the kingdom? Do ye consent to his words, appointing men to believe the gospel he preached, and to be immersed, that they may be saved? Do ye not rather make void all this by your traditions, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men? To believe and do, ye practically repudiate, in affirming the salvation of those who neither know, believe, nor obey. Now He whom ye call Lord, testifies against you, saying, “He that receiveth not my words, the word that I have spoken, the same shall condemn him in the last day.” “The gospel of the kingdom” is “the word of the kingdom,” which he sowed in his field. By faith in this word men will be justified; without it, they will be condemned; for the words of Jesus are, “He that believeth not shall be condemned.”
Now, it is notorious, O ye clergy of all orders and degrees, that ye do not consent to “the truth as it is in Jesus;” but that ye substitute all sorts of foolishness in its place. Ye blaspheme “the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” by invoking it in the rhantism of babes, who, you teach, are by that absurdity engrafted into the body of Christ. This is taking the name, “the Glorious and Fearful Name,” Jehovah-Elohim, in vain. That name is holy and reverend; and He hath commanded, saying, “Thou shalt not take the name of p. 18 Jehovah thine Elohim in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain”—Exod. xx. 7. And surely it is an egregious vanity, in view of the testimony, “that without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that cometh to him, must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him”—to bring a puling babe to a pint basin, incapable of faith, ignorant of any thing called God, and a diligent seeker only of its mother’s breast! And this ye do, and many other abominations too, O ye Destroyers of the people. Hear, then, what Paul, whom ye style “the Great Apostle to the Gentiles,” hath declared to your confusion. In 1 Tim. vi. 3, he says, “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the teaching which is according to godliness; he has been besmoked, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.”
It is manifest, then, from these premises, that the pious zealots of the names and denominations of Gentile Christianity, together with their professional guides, are all of the same category. Though very respectable and orderly members of society, they are besmoked know-nothings, and wicked, not consenting to the words of Jesus, but casting his words behind them, and denouncing them as “heresy.” The revelation before us, “which the Deity gave to him,” was not for them. It was for “his servants;” and the “spiritual guides” of the people are not his servants. This is the reason why there is no interpretation of THE APOCALYPSE extant, written by “a theologian” or “divine,” that has any claim to consideration or respect as a scriptural exegesis of the book. Though learned in mythology and the dead languages, in history ancient and modern, in general literature and science, they are not learned in Moses and the Prophets, and the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles. “The fear of Jehovah,” as taught by these, “is the beginning of wisdom;” and this commencement they have not made. No man can interpret the Apocalypse in harmony with the prophetic writings, who believes that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, are now inheriting the promises covenanted to them; or that the inheritance covenanted is beyond the skies. An occupant of an episcopal throne in the State Church of any nation, cannot interpret the book, not being able to see that his own church is one of the daughters of the Mother of Harlots; and that he himself is one of “the merchants of the earth,” whose merchandise is of tithes, bodies, and the souls of men. He that denies the personal reappearance of Jesus Christ upon Mount Olivet; who affirms that he is now sitting upon the throne of David; and that consequently p. 19 there will be no rebuilding of David’s dwelling-place, or reestablishment of his throne in Zion: he that denies the restoration of the twelve tribes of Israel to their native land; maintains that they are for ever outcasts; and that no kingdom will be restored to them—cannot “read the book, nor see it.” Believers in a “past millennium” are literally shut up and sealed, and totally destitute of all spiritual perception. In short, the grand prerequisite for an expositor of this wonderful little book is, that he understand the gospel of the kingdom as exhibited in the prophets; the preaching of Jesus as the Christ; and the revelation of the mystery as set forth by the apostles. He must have a comprehensive understanding of the Scriptures from Genesis to Jude; for the light shining from all these testimonies converges upon the apocalyptic page, whose crises, as a mirror, reflect the kingdom promised to the saints.
“The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ” is then for the servants of God:—for those who believe the Gospel of the Kingdom it exhibits; and have been “washed from their sins in his blood,” in being baptized into his name. “Know ye not,” says Paul, “that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of SIN unto death, or of OBEDIENCE unto righteousness?” Here are two masters; the first, the Lord of the world; the last, the ruling principle of Jehovah’s people. “Sin is the transgression of law;” and because this is the natural tendency of our nature, “sin” is sometimes used for “the flesh.” He, therefore, that serves his own lusts, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” which not only constitute the man, but the world, or aggregate of such, is Sin’s servant or slave. Such a man, be he “priest,” “clergyman,” “minister,” or “layman,” serves sin unto death. Being of the world he speaks of the world, and the world hears him—1 John iv. 5. He is essentially a man-pleaser, who holds men’s persons in admiration for the sake of advantage; and therefore cannot be the servant of Christ—Gal. i. 10; Jude 16. The thinking that characterizes such is termed “the thinking of the flesh.” What they think and give expression to is palatable to those who do not know the Scriptures, which is a great cause of error in the world. Their thoughts and reasonings are at issue with the thoughts and ways of God; and therefore, the thinking of the flesh is said to be at enmity with God, not subject to his law, neither indeed can be—Rom. viii. 7 When a clergyman or layman thinks on God and his purposes; on what would be pleasing to him; on his own destiny or that of nations and the earth; and judges of these, not according to what is written in the Bible, but according to what appears to him to be “the fitness of things,” and according to the institutes of theological schools and seminaries; such thinking and judgment is the thinking of Sin, and inevitably at variance with the mind of p. 20 Christ. Sin reigns in his thoughts, in his flesh, and in his ways. He is Sin’s servant, and though a slave, being free from righteousness, he serves him with delight.
Paul reminds the Saints in Rome that they were all the servants of sin once; but thanks God in their behalf, that they had been freed from sin, and were now the servants of righteousness, “having obeyed from the heart A FORM OF TEACHING, τυπον διδαχης, tupon didaches, into which they were delivered”—Rom. vi. 17. They obeyed a form of teaching which emancipated, liberated, or set them free, from the lordship of Sin. This was Paul’s mission—to invite men to a change of masters. He addressed himself to free men and slaves, all of whom, whatever their political or social position, were in bondage to the devil or sin. He did not invite slaves to abscond from their fleshly owners; on the contrary, he told men to remain in the several callings of life in which they were when they first heard the truth. “Let every man,” says he, “abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called, being a slave? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.” As if he had said, “Social or political liberty is a small matter in view of what men are called, or invited to, by the gospel of the kingdom. My mission is to “open men’s eyes, to turn them from darkness [of mind] to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among the sanctified by faith [which leads] into Jesus”—Acts xxvi. 18. He invited Sin’s servants to become Jehovah’s servants upon the principle of purchase; so that, in addressing those who had abandoned the synagogue and temple for the house of Christ, he says to them, “Ye are bought with a price. They were “not their own,” being bought bodily and spiritually; “therefore,” said he, “glorify God with your body and with your spirit, which are God’s—1 Cor. vii. 23; vi. 19, 20. When a man’s body and spirit become another’s property, all property in himself is surrendered to the purchaser. All that he used to call his before he was sold, is transferred to his owner; and, if allowed to retain it, he must use it as the steward of his lord.
Redemption is release for a ransom. All who become God’s servants are therefore released from a former lord by purchase. The purchaser is Jehovah; and the price, or ransom, paid, the precious blood of the flesh through which the Anointing Spirit was manifested. It is therefore styled, “the precious blood of Christ:” as it is written in the words of Peter to his brethren, saying, “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conduct paternally delivered; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot and without blemish”—1 Epist. i. 18. If this Christ-Lamb had p. 21 not been slain, the fifth and sixth verses of the first chapter of the Apocalypse could not have been written; the “New Song” of chap. v. 9, 10, could never have been sung; the 144,000 could never have been sealed, the robes of the saints, the palm-bearers of ch. vii. 9-14, could never have been washed white in blood; there would have been no Altar, no worshippers thereat, nor souls underneath it in death—ch. xi. i.; vi. 9; and there would have been no “fine linen, clean and white,” to clothe the body guards of “the King of kings”—ch. xix. 8, 14. All these parts of the Apocalypse are based on the slaying of the Christ-Lamb as the redemption price of the servants of God.
Satan took the price of release. In the day of his power he valued the blood at thirty pieces of silver. In this was fulfilled the saying of the prophet, “They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver: and cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them”—Zech. xi. 12, 13. The life being purchased for this amount of blood-money, Satan nailed the Christ-Lamb to the tree; and poured out his life with a spear. Jesus entered no protest against the arrangement. On the contrary, he lovingly laid down his life for the sake of those who had died under the law of Moses, walking in the steps of Abraham’s faith; and for them also, who should afterwards become Abraham’s children by adoption through himself. With the first class, as a man, he had no personal acquaintance; with the last, comprehending multitudes of his contemporaries, his acquaintance cost him his life. Unknown by the one, and condemned and persecuted by the other, he nevertheless laid down his life to purchase their release from the bondage of Sin and Death. “I am,” said he, “the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep; and I lay down my life for them of myself. No man taketh it from me. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again”—Jno. x. He regarded this as the greatest evidence of love; for, as Paul reasons, “Scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Well, therefore, may it be said, “Unto him that loved us, to him be glory and dominion for the Aions of the Aions”—ch. i. 5, 6.
The “servants of God, sealed in their foreheads,” are represented by the square of 12; so that their measurement is 144 cubits, and their numerical representation 144,000—Apoc. vii. 3, 4; xiv. 1; xxi. 17. This square is the sum of all released from bondage to Satan, consequent upon their “obeying the form of teaching delivered unto them.” The releasing them, of course, is an affair of the ages, seeing that the redeemed do not belong to one and the same nation and generation, p. 22 Jesus died and rose again for the release of these—his sheep scattered among the nations and generations of centuries. In the providence of God, “the Form of Teaching” is brought before them; and being of his sheep, they discern in the teaching the Great Shepherd’s voice, and follow it—John x. 26, 27: and as he said to Paul at Corinth, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city”—Acts xviii. 10. After this encouraging admonition, Paul continued speaking in Corinth a year and six months, for the manifestation of this people. They heard; they believed; and they were baptized. They believed “the teaching,” and “obeyed the form.” The teaching was the Gospel of the Apocalypse of the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us that “Christ sent him to preach the gospel; which is the power of God for salvation to every one believing; for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith”—1 Cor. i. 17; Rom. i. 16, 17. In preaching this, he says, “I came declaring the testimony of God;” and “speaking the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which had been hid from the Aions and the Generations, but NOW is made manifest to his Saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”—1 Cor. ii. 1, 7; Col. i. 26, 27.
In the teaching, he taught them “the things concerning the Kingdom of God, and the Name of Jesus Christ;” so that, as the result of his instruction, they came to be “washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of God”—1 Cor. vi. 11; and to wait for his Apocalypse—ch. i. 7. Here was a form of teaching or doctrine presented to them in the formula of the name. He told them about the kingdom and glory to be apocalypsed when the hour should arrive for Jesus Christ to hurl Satan, their master, like lightning from the heaven. His testimony to this effect was confirmed among them by “the demonstration of Spirit and power, that their faith might stand in the power of God”—1 Cor. i. 6; ii. 4, 5. Having convinced them of this, he invited them to a coöperation with Jesus in the overthrow of Satan, and in the government of the nations when Satan should be cast into the abyss, and shut up, and sealed, so that he could deceive them no more—Apoc. xx. 2, 3. But, at the same time, he taught them that that government which was to succeed Satan’s, was to be a pure, indestructible, divine, and righteous dominion; and that consequently, flesh and blood, or mortals, and the unrighteous, could not possibly have any share in it—1 Cor. vi. 9; xv. 50. This declaration, attested by the Spirit, brought up the inquiry, What does God require p. 23 a believer of his promises to do that he may become righteous, and capable of inheriting them? In other words, What must he do to become the subject of the righteousness of God? Of that righteousness, which Paul says is “witnessed by the law and the prophets?” The answer to all who believe the promises, and that Jesus is the Anointed Son of Jehovah, in whose crucified flesh sin was condemned; and that he rose from the dead for the justification of all given to him for brethren by the Father: the answer to such is, Do what Peter commanded the same class to do in Acts ii. 38. Do what is prescribed in Acts iii. 19. Do what the Samaritans did in Acts viii. 12, 16. Do what the Cushite officer did in Acts viii. 38, 39. Do what Paul himself did in Acts ix. 18; xxii: 16. Do what Peter commanded the devout Gentiles to do in Acts x. 48. Do what was prescribed to the Philippian household in Acts xvi. 33. Do what the Corinthians did in Acts xviii. 8:—for they all did the same thing. They believed the same teaching, and “obeyed the” same “form,” in conformity with the command to “be baptized into the name of Jehovah.”
In becoming thus enlightened and obedient they became “the servants of God,” purchased from Satan at the price of blood sold to him for thirty pieces of silver. By right of purchase, God calls upon all the purchased in Satan’s household to leave his service, and come over to him. “The Lord knoweth them that are his.” This is the seal of his foundation—2 Tim. ii. 19; and he sent out his trumpeters to make proclamation, and to invite his own to present heirship of the kingdom and eternal glory, for which he has purchased them of the enemy—1 Thess. ii. 12; 2 Epist. i. 5; James ii. 5. “He that receiveth the testimony of Jesus hath set to his seal that God is true”—Jno. iii. 33. He endorses understandingly all that God hath done. He rejoices in the purchase, or redemption, refuses any longer to serve sin, and sings, “Unto him that loved us, and redeemed us to God by his blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and washed us therein from our sins, and hath made us kings and priests for God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for the Aions of the Aions”—Apoc. i. 5; 6; v. 9.
These immersed believers of the exceeding great and precious promises covenanted to the fathers, and confirmed in Jesus, the Minister of the Circumcision (Rom. xv. 8) by obeying the form of teaching were brought into a patient waiting for what they believed in and hoped for. In writing to some of them at Corinth, Paul says, that they came behind in no gift, “waiting for the coming of the Lord, the Anointed Jesus”—1 Cor. i. 7. Thus it reads in the English Version; but in the original “the coming” is expressed by την αποκαλυψιν, THE APOCALYPSE. p. 24 They waited for the Apocalypse of Jehovah, the Anointed Jesus. For the information of the mere English reader we may remark that apocalupsis is derived from a verb which signifies “to uncover, bring to light what was hidden.” The noun, therefore, signifies a disclosure, a revelation. The subject of the disclosure may be ideas, persons, or events. In the sense of new ideas being put into the mind with enlightening effect, apokalupsis is used in Luke ii. 32, where Simeon, speaking by the Holy Spirit of the future of the child Jesus he then held in his arms, styled him “A light for an apocalypse of nations, and a glory of Jehovah’s people Israel.” In this text, it clearly signifies illumination. That is, that at some period of the history of the nations, Jesus would be, at one and the same time, a light and a glory to them and Israel. Moses says by the Spirit הרנינו גוים עמו, harninu, goyim, ammo, “Rejoice, ye nations, his people;” but Paul, quoting from the Septuagint, says “with his people.” Either way answers to the truth; for when the nations are caused to rejoice, they will have previously become Jehovah’s people (Zech. ii. 11) and will also rejoice with Israel and the Saints. Now, when this shall be the order of the day, the nations will have been apocalypsed by him who will be “the glory of Israel.” He will be a light in Zion in the midst of the nations, confounding the moon, and putting the sun of the former heavens to shame.
He will be “a light for an apocalypse of nations.” The nature of this apocalypse may be discerned from a few testimonies of the prophets. “In Zion,” says Isaiah, “shall Jehovah of armies make unto all people a feast. And in this mountain he will destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and Jehovah Elohim will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it”—xxv. 6. The veil or covering the prophet speaks of here, is that “strong delusion” to which Paul alludes in 2 Thes. ii. 11, where he predicted the present moral condition of the nations under the Man of Sin, or Satan of the Apocalypse, xii.; xx. The nations of “Christendom” are all under the veil. God sent the truth among them; but Paul says, “they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause,” he continues, “God shall send them STRONG DELUSION, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be condemned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness.” Here is their sin and punishment. They corrupted the truth, and the corruption waxed strong in them; and deluded them into the belief of A LIE, or system of falsehood. By this the nations of “Christendom” are overspread as by a covering. p. 25 No nation is exempt from the delusion. The most enlightened believe “the Lie” in common with the least. Greekism, Romanism, and Protestantism, in all their “NAMES AND DENOMINATIONS,” are elements of the Strong Delusion. They all pretend to be Christianity; while in reality they are only abominable, and badly executed counterfeits.
Delusion and delirium have a near and intimate relationship; and the stronger the delusion the more intense the delirium. In the Apocalypse, therefore, when the “strong delusion,” in its effects upon the nations of “Christendom,” comes to be “signified” or represented, they are described as having been “made drunk,” and as being drunk. “The inhabitants of the earth,” said the Angel to John, “have been made drunk with the wine of the Great Harlot’s fornication”—Apoc. xvii. 2; xviii. 3. The last text declares that “all nations” are intoxicated. The drunkenness is, therefore, not restricted to the Greek and Latin communions; but comprehends all Protestant nations as well. They are all deceived by Satan, by whose energy, and deceivableness of unrighteousness, the soul-merchants of the earth have been able to establish themselves as the spiritual guides of the people. Blind, intensely blind and intoxicated, they are leading the blind and reeling multitudes into an unfathomable abyss; and they themselves are rapidly approaching that universal bankruptcy, when their commerce in souls will be extinguished, “and no man will buy their merchandise any more.” The days of the schools, colleges, seminaries, and ecclesiastical establishments of the nations are numbered; and the end of their theological craft decreed. They are weighed in the balances and found wanting—wanting in the knowledge of “the truth as it is in Jesus.” Though they boast of the light and glory of our century; and are upon such admirable terms with themselves as the people of the Lord, basking in the sunshine of his favor and delight; the Scriptures denounce their pretensions, and resolve them into the grossest darkness, sensuality, and wickedness. And this is unquestionably true. No other conclusion can be come to in view of what the Spirit saith. Speaking by Isaiah he declares that if any one do not speak according to Moses and the Prophets he is a dark body—ch. viii. 20. “There is no light in him.” Now it is notorious, that the professors of the theological institutions of all sects, and the clerical, or ministerial, orders of all denominations, are grossly ignorant of the Old Testament writings. In presuming, therefore, to preach from, or to explain the New, it is utterly impossible for them to speak according to Moses and the Prophets. A man cannot speak in accordance with what he knows little or nothing about. The testimony, therefore, convicts them of utter incompetency. It declares them to be utterly without light: which is equivalent to saying that they p. 26 are in gross darkness. And, this being the condition of the ecclesiastics, how awfully dark must the people they call the “laity” be! “Like priest, like people,”—darkness added to darkness until it becomes Egyptian, or darkness to be felt.
If the nations were enlightened the Apocalypse of the Anointed Jesus would be unnecessary. He comes because of the darkness of the world. He comes as a light, as the Day Star, to illuminate the nations. He does not come because they are enlightened. If his coming be postponed to this, he never will come; for instead of a knowledge of the truth increasing among them, the darkness is intensifying day by day.
Now that the Lord comes while darkness reigns, is manifest from the following testimony:—Isaiah informs us, that “the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob;” and that then she shall “arise and shine; because her Light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon her.” He then tells us the reason why Jehovah, or the Anointed One, comes to shine upon her; and the following is the reason: “Because darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people.” This is the mental, or intellectual and moral, condition of clergy and people, Gentiles and Jews, at the epoch when Christ comes as “A Light for their apocalypse.”
Such is, and such will continue to be, the spiritual condition of the world until then. But when they have been apocalypsed, or illuminated, the change will be glorious. “The earth” will then “be full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea,” even as God had sworn to Moses—Numb. xiv. 21; Isaiah xi. 9; Hab. ii. 14. Then “Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain (or kingdom) of Jehovah, and to the house of the Elohim of Jacob: and He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And he shall rule among the nations, and he shall punish many peoples; and,” in consequence of that rebuke, “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
Having spoken peace to the nations, and being established in his glory, the day of Jehovah’s exaltation will have been apocalypsed, or revealed—that day in which, it is testified, “Jehovah alone shall be exalted”—Isaiah ii. 10, 11, 16, 17. “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations shall he gathered unto it, to THE NAME OF JEHOVAH, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart”—Jer. iii. 17. This is a very plain testimony. Jerusalem is to become the throne of a government p. 27 which is to have universal dominion; and that when it exists, the nations will have abandoned the strong delusion, or “imagination,” by which they are now deceived. The occupation of the “Reverend Divines” of “Christendom” will then be gone. All names and denominations of blasphemy ending in ism will then be abolished; and they will be all as clean swept away as was the old world by the flood. What a glorious riddance for the world! The “seducing spirits,” “the demons,” “the captivators of silly women laden with sins,” the “transformed ministers of Satan,” teachers heaped up to themselves after their own lusts to tickle their itching ears: men of corrupt minds, who speak lies in hypocrisy; unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness—these, with all their old wives’ fables and traditions, will all have been precipitated as Satan, with lightning volocity from the heavens, into the promiscuous confusion of the bottomless abyss. No clergyman will then venture to lift up his voice to sermonize the people; for “It shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy [or preach], then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of Jehovah: and they shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets [or preachers] shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear hair garments to deceive”—Zech. xiii. 3, 4. If the ecclesiastics were to be dealt with upon this principle at the present time, not a soul of them would escape death upon the spot; for it is their craft to “speak lies in the name of Jehovah,” and to wear peculiar garments for professional deceit. The world that now fawns upon and flatters their vanity, and glorifies their foolishness, will then curse their memorial. In that day of affliction to the Apostasy, it is testified, that “the Gentiles shall come unto Jehovah from the ends of the earth, and shall say: Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit”—Jer. xvi. 19. This is what they will say of Episcopalianism, Presbyterianism, Lutheranism, Methodism, Congregationalism, Universalism, Mormonism, Millerism, Campbellism, Romanism, Greekism, &c., &c., &c.—all false, vain, and unprofitable. This is their true character; for they make up the ecclesiasticism of the nations; and how is it possible for drunken nations, overspread with strong delusion as a thick veil, to hew out for themselves cisterns capable of holding water from the fountain of life?