The New Testament Use of the Word Apocalypse
The word apokalupsis is used eighteen times in the New Testament. The first place where it occurs is that we have just been considering; the p. 28 last is in Rev. i. 1; as the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ which the Deity committed to him to show to his servants things which must come to pass speedily.” Here the apocalypse is an exhibition of things to be transacted subsequently to the communication of it; and when we look into it we find its signs, scenes, and so forth, all tending to, or terminating in, the personal manifestation of Jesus Christ before the nations, the overthrow of their dominions, and the victory of his Brethren, the Saints, over the grave, and over the Satanism of “Christendom” in Church and State in whatever form they may be found. Hence the Apocalypse exhibits what the testimonies already adduced predict without a symbol, God has determined shall come to pass in the Anointed Jesus shining as “a Light for an apocalypse of nations.”
The apostle Paul uses the noun apocalupsis thirteen times in his writings; and the verb apocalupto also thirteen. In Rom. ii. 5, he uses it in relation to a manifestation of judgment, “in a day of wrath and apocalypse of God’s righteous judgment.” This is a day yet future; because in it, Paul says, the glory, honor, incorruptibility, and life of the Aion will be rendered to the righteous; and indignation and wrath to “those who obey not the truth.” It is “a Day of Wrath and Apocalypse”: hence, whatever constitutes the apocalypse, is to be looked for in “a time of trouble,” as Daniel terms it; or “a day of affliction,” in the words of Jeremiah. They may cry “Peace and Safety;” but there will be neither in the Day of Apocalypse; but rather “sudden destruction as travail upon a woman with child”—1 Thess. v. 3.
In Rom. viii. 19, he uses the noun in reference to the disclosure of the Sons of God to the view of the nations, from which they are at present concealed. The Sons of God are to be apocalypsed, and glory is to be apocalypsed in them, as well as Jesus, their Elder Brother. “I reckon,” says Paul, “that the sufferings of the present time are not comparable with the future glory to be apocalypsed in us. For the earnest hope of the creature is looking for the Apocalypse of the Sons of God.” In the English version this is rendered by “the manifestation of the sons of God.” The meaning is this: Mankind are divided by Scripture into Two Classes—the Serpent and his seed; and the Woman and her seed—Gen. iii. 15. As early as the times before the flood, the former were styled simply “men;” the latter, “the Sons of God”—Gen. vi. 12. By the flood, “men” were swept from the earth which they had filled with violence; and their apostasy was extinguished with them: that is, “the earth was corrupt; FOR all flesh had corrupted GOD’S WAY upon the earth”—Gen. vi. 11, 12. They had set up a corrupted way of worshipping God, which constituted an apostasy, or departure from the Original Way instituted in Eden This did not suit their evil nature; therefore p. 29 they altered it to please; and under its inspiration filled the habitable with their abominations. Only one small family protested against this apostasy; a family of eight persons, all that were left on earth of the Sons of God among the living. These were saved by the earth’s baptism; while the apostasy, in all its ecclesiastical, civil, and social relations, was torn up by the roots, and swept away.
Sons of God is a title conferred upon certain descendants of Adam, which places them in the same class of intelligences as the Angels. These are also styled “Sons of God” and “Stars of the Dawn,” or “Morning Stars”—Job. xxviii. 7. We do not mean to say that the Sons of God, called in Scripture angels, or messengers, and Gods, are now mortal and corruptible, and weak of mind and body as we aie; they have passed through this state, and now occupy a state beyond it, in which they are incorruptible, immortal, glorious, powerful, wise, and of spirit-corporeality. In their former state they were Sons of God subject to evil as we; in their present, they are sons subject only to good. Men are invited to the same destiny. They are invited now to enter Jehovah’s family, and to become his sons and daughters, with the promise of hereafter being promoted to a physical equality with the angels. Thus it is written, in 2 Cor. vi. 17, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith Jehovah, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters, saith Jehovah AIL-Shaddai.”
But he not only gives men invitation to become his children, but he gives them power also. Thus the Jehovah-Spirit came to his own land (τα ιδια) but his own people (οι ιδιοι) the Jews, received him not. Nevertheless, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become children of God, to them believing into his name, who are born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”—Jno. i. 11-13. Here the fleshly principle is repudiated. “The flesh profits nothing.” No man is a Son of God, because he is descended from “Adam Son of God”—Luke iii. 38; but Adam’s sons become Sons of God by adoption through His Name. They must believe the promises covenanted; believe in Jesus, as the Jehovah-Spirit manifested in flesh, made a sin-offering, justified in spirit for the justification of believers; and be immersed into the Name, that they may be the subject of the repentance and the remission of sins which are offered in that name; and communicable only to such in putting on the name according to divine prescription. The power of becoming a son of God consists in obeying the form of teaching apostolically delivered. In putting on Christ the Son of God by eminence, a man becomes a son of God. Addressing the sons of God in Galatia, Paul says: “In p. 30 Jesus anointed ye are all sons of God through the faith: for as many of you as were immersed into the Anointed have put on the Anointed. And if ye be the Anointed’s, then ye are the seed of Abraham, and Heirs according to the promise”—ch. iii. 26-29. When a son of Adam is thus adopted into Abraham’s family, he is a son of Abraham because he is in Jesus who was his descendant according to the flesh. He is in God the Father,—and in the Son, by constitution; and Christ dwells in him by faith that works by love, and purifies the heart”—Eph. iii. 17; 1 Thess. i. 1. This step being assured, what follows is of course. “IF children,” says Paul, “then heirs, HEIRS OF GOD, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be GLORIFIED TOGETHER.”
This contemporary glorification of Jesus and his brethren of the Abrahamic Family is the subject matter of their apocalypse; and points to their development as sons of God. This occurs “in the resurrection,” an Aion-period in which the sons of God obtain their new nature, or materiality. Mentally, that is, as to mind, disposition, and character, or as we might say, spiritually, and constitutionally, they are sons of God; but as to the flesh, they are, on this side the resurrection, still the children of Adam. They are flesh and blood, but they do not walk after, or according to, its impulses; living a life of self-denial, being led by the spirit, in being led by the truth understood, believed, and affectionately obeyed, as it is written: “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” But, to be sons of God in the full import of the title, they must put off the Old Adam in respect to body as well as to conduct and intelligence. They must become sons of God bodily as well as spiritually. They are waiting for this, namely, “for the adoption, the redemption of their body.” Jesus referred to this in his argument with the Sadducees, saying: “They who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that Aion, and the resurrection which is from among the dead, cannot die any more; for they are equal to angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”—Luke xx. 35, 36.
Now hear what John says upon this subject in 1 Epist. iii. 1, 2. “Behold,” says he, “what great love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be styled sons of God! Because the world does not know him, therefore it does not know us. Beloved, we are now sons of God, though it doth not yet appear what we shall be: nevertheless we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one having this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
From this testimony, then, it is clear, that the Sons of God are not yet apocalypsed, or manifested. Therefore, the world does not know them; p. 31 though, if it have an opinion in the matter, and were invited to point them out, it would certainly judge, that if God had any sons among men, they were those whom it recognizes as the “Ambassadors of Jesus Christ,” and the “Successors of the Apostles,” together with the pious of their flocks. By the world, we mean what is called, or what rather is self-styled, “the Religious World,” made up of all members and supporters of the ecclesiasticism of what they call “Christendom.” But this world knows not the Father, how therefore can it know the sons. Neither can it know them before their apocalypse; for the testimonies by which they are defined they will not trouble themselves to understand. No man is led by the Spirit of God who is not led by an intelligent belief of the truth. This truth the world and its soul-merchants do not know. They are therefore not led by it; and are consequently according to Paul, not the Sons of God. “They are of the world; therefore speak they of the world; and the world heareth them.” By this rule it is easy to perceive that the world’s judgment is wrong. They whom the world hears are not of God. He never sent them, nor were they ever adopted into his Abrahamic Family. If they were God’s sons the world would not listen to them; but would hate and persecute them. They profess to admit that the apostles were of God; but they pay no regard to what they teach. Their whole ministry is spent in falsifying and destroying their doctrine. “Be mindful,” says Peter, “of the words which were spoken before by the Holy Prophets, and of the commandments of us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour”—2 Pet. iii. 2. But Peter may as well speak to a post as to the ecclesiastics of the world. They only care for him and his words so far as they can turn them into cash, or make them available for the preservation of vested interests. They have long ceased to hear both prophets and apostles, as any one may know who will take the trouble to compare their traditions and practices with the commandments and testimonies of God. “He that knoweth God heareth us,” says John; “he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of the Truth, and the Spirit of the Delusion.”
After so plain a declaration as the foregoing, is it possible to admit that the Religious World and its rulers are of God; and worship him in spirit and in truth? That the Spirit of the Truth is formative of their systems? Or that its worshippers are his sons? Nay, verily, its formative spirit is that of Antichrist, which is discerned in their “love of the world, and of the things which are in the world;” a love, which is earnestly deprecated by the apostles of Christ. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;” but are not the people’s spiritual guides devoted to the world? Are they not the world’s hired p. 32 servants? Are they not them whom the world delights to honor? Are not their flocks perfect incarnations of “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life?” All of which the apostle testifies “is not of the Father, but is of the world”—1 Jno. ii. 15, 16. The affirmative to these inquiries is alone admissible; and the apostolic principles clearly determine that the ecclesiastical system, in its totality of names, denominations, churches, reverend orders, institutions, and worshippers, is of the Devil, and not of God. We therefore verily believe, that when the reality of things is vindicated in the apocalypse of the Sons of God; when his glory shall be apocalypsed in them; and when the Captain of their salvation as “a Light for an apocalypse of nations,” shall appear—we believe that when this shall come to pass, He will say to the flocks and shepherds of the religious world, as he said to the same class in Judea, “Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will to do. He was a manslayer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own things; for he is a liar and the father of it.” “He that is of God heareth God’s words; but because ye are not of God, therefore ye hear them not.” If we are to judge a tree by its fruits, what other conclusion is it possible to come to? The pious of the world are adepts in all the lusts of the flesh; they do not stand in the truth, which is an offence to them; when they speak, they lie against the truth, and speak of their own conceits; they do not hear, or believe and obey, the words of God; and therefore the conclusion is inevitable that they are not of God; and therefore of necessity of the Devil.
This is also manifest from another consideration. If the ecclesiasticism of Christendom were the worship of God in spirit and in truth, the poor in this world, rich in faith, would be the notables, revered and beloved by the rich; who would rejoice in emptying themselves of their glory and honor, that they might be exalted in due time. But the reverse of this is the fact. Mammon reigns in Church as well as State; and the members of the one are the ambitious and brawling politicians of the other. All this is of the flesh, or Sin Incarnate, which is the Devil. Now the mission of Jesus is to destroy the Devil, and the works of the Devil—Heb. ii. 14; 1 Jno. iii. 8: and we have already seen, that the Gentiles are to come to him after his apocalypse, and to confess that what they now cherish is only lies, vanity, and unprofitable. They will then acknowledge that their denominations are works of the Devil; and as such they will rejoice in their abolition, and glorify their destroyer. The whole system now existing is a monster iniquity, which only awaits the “apocalypse of the Sons of God” for its disruption, and utter annihilation.
p. 33 Another place in Paul’s writings where he uses this noun in a notable manner is in 2 Thes. i. 7. He there tells his persecuted brethren that God will recompense to them “a rest with us (Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy) in the apocalypse of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with angels of his power, in fire of flame, inflicting vengeance on those who know not God, and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Anointed; who shall suffer punishment, Aion-destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified with his Saints, and to be admired with all the believers in that day.”
In the next chapter, ver. 8, he informs the reader that a certain power would exist, contemporary with the apocalypse of that day, which should be wasted and destroyed. He styled it THE LAWLESS ONE, “whom,” says he, “the Lord shall consume by the spirit of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his presence.”
In writing to the faithful, Peter also directs their attention to “the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ” as the time when their faith should be “found unto praise and honor and glory.” He exhorts them to “hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought in the apocalypse of Jesus Christ;” and in a third place of the same epistle he says, “Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that in the apocalypse of his glory, ye may be glad also, leaping for joy”—1 Pet. i. 7, 13; iv. 13.
It must be evident, then, to all who have examined the testimonies adduced, that apocalypse, in the New Testament use of the word, is not used indefinitely or vaguely, importing merely a disclosure or uncovering of ideas previously concealed: but that it has a special and appropriated signification—a doctrinal meaning peculiar to itself; teaching,
1. The introduction of A DAY, styled the Day of Apocalypse;
2. The manifestation in that day of A LIGHT for the Apocalypse of Nations;
3. The inflicting of vengeance and punishment on the lawless and disobedient in that day;
4. The personal appearance of Jesus Christ, as the Light of the Day of Wrath and Apocalypse;
5. The manifestations of the Sons of God by resurrection from among the dead, and glorification with Jesus Christ—the Apocalypse of Salvation in the last time.
For the things indicated in these points, the believers who received their enlightenment through the personal labors of the apostles, waited and earnestly longed; as they have also, who in succeeding ages and generations have been instructed in the truth by their writings in connexion p. 34 with those of Moses and the Prophets. With believers of this class the question uppermost in their minds has ever been, “O Lord, how long? How long, O Elohim, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy despise thy name for ever?” “How long, O Jehovah; wilt thou hide thyself for ever?” “Return, O Jehovah, how long? How long are thy servants to wait for thy return?” “How long, O Jehovah, how long shall the wicked exult?”—Psal. lxxiv. 10; lxxxix. 46; xc. 13; xciv. 3. Isaiah had a vision of the Adon, the I SHALL BE of armies, sitting upon his throne, at a time when the whole earth shall be full of his glory. “Mine eyes,” says he, “have seen the King, the Jehovah of armies!” At the same time he heard a declaration announcing a punishment to be inflicted upon the tribes of Israel, because they would not understand and perceive the truth in the day of the King’s visitation. Fatness of heart, heaviness of ears, and blindness were to come upon them, as at this day. So long as it continued, the earth’s fulness of glory would be deferred. The prophet was greatly afflicted at this, and exclaimed, “Woe is me! For I am cut off; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” Then, said I, Adon, how long?—Chap. vi.
Over 200 years afterwards the same inquiry was made in the hearing of Daniel, and in effect by Daniel himself. The long night of Israel’s darkness foreseen by Isaiah to come upon them after the rejection of Jehovah’s Messenger, who was to go and say to them, “Ye hear in hearing, but do not understand; and ye see in seeing, but do not perceive”—Mat. xiii. 13—is characterized in Daniel by the absence of sacrifice, the desolation of the land, and the dispersion and oppression of the nation—ch. viii. 11-13, 24; ix. 26, 27; xii. 7. It had been revealed to Daniel, that a powerful and indestructible kingdom should be set up by the God of heaven, which should consume and destroy every thing that stood up against it; that the Son of man and the Saints should possess it, with dominion over the whole earth; and that then power should be restored to the Hebrew nation, which should never again be broken: but before all this could begin to come to pass, he saw a long period of affliction would obtain. It was therefore desired to know when it should terminate; as terminate it must before the glory can be apocalypsed or revealed. “How long,” then it was asked, “shall the Little Horn of the Goat practise and prosper against the Holy Land and the Host of Israel?” for this is in effect the question of the thirteenth verse. How long till the arrival of the period when the Holy shall be avenged—נצדק קדש nitzdaik kodesh?
The answer to this question only bringing the inquirer to the period in which the vengeance is to be developed, it was still desired to know p. 35 further “How long to the end of the wonders” to be developed in “the time of the end?” The answer was by the specification of a period, and an event. “For a time, times, and a half.” This is the duration of the period, constituting the latter portion of what Jesus Christ terms “the Times of the Gentiles,” during which Jerusalem and the Saints were to be trodden under foot—Luke xxi. 24: and symbolized in the Apocalypse by “the Court which is without the Temple, given to the Gentiles for forty and two months”—ch. xi. 2. The event that marks the end of the period is THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL, which is thus expressed, “When he (Michael the Great Prince that liveth for the Aion) shall have finished the scattering of the power of the Holy People, all these times shall be finished.”
But still the question admitted of repetition. True, in the time of the end, and at that crisis of it, when the King of the North, as the Imperial Horn of the Grecian Goat, shall be broken with an end of power, by Michael in standing up to deliver Israel, “the time, times, and a half” shall conclude: but then, “How long,” said Daniel, “to the end of these?” They shall end at the delivering of Israel; but how many years from Daniel’s time shall it be to that redemption?
The rejoinder which Daniel received to the question, “How long to the end of these ?” is remarkable. He was not informed how long. He was told instead to “go:” and the reason given for telling him to depart in ignorance of the end of the times, was that “the words were sealed up and closed till the time of the end.” The words of a book sealed up and closed could not be read. Daniel declares that he did not understand. He did not understand the times of the winding up of the visions he had seen. He did not understand when the Stone would smite Nebuchadnezzar’s Image; nor when the Saints would break the power of the Little Horn, and take the dominion under the whole heaven; he did not understand when, or in what year of the world’s age, Michael should deliver Israel, and raise the dead. “I heard,” says he, “but I understood not:” the answer to the question, “How long?” was still deferred.
Daniel, however, did not depart in despair. He was told that the Daily Sacrifice should be taken away to make room for a desolating abomination, or power, which should prosper for 1290 years; and that 45 years after that period should close, “many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth should awake to the life of the Olahm or Aion;” and that then he should arise to his inheritance.
The Apocalypse revives this ancient question in ch. vi. 10. In this place, those in Christ slain for the word of God, and for the testimony they held, being many, are represented as crying with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Despotes, holy and true, dost thou not judge and p. 36 avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth?” In answer to this appeal, they were told that they must rest yet a little while;” and in the eighteenth chapter we find the little while, in its allegorical allusion, fulfilled in the avenging of the Saints upon the Apostasy in the judgment of the Great Harlot by whom all the nations have been intoxicated and deceived.
From what has been hitherto presented, we presume that the reader will have discerned that the great question generated in the minds of those who believed the gospel preached by the apostles, was, “What are the times and the seasons; and what the signs indicative of the appearing of Jesus Christ in his kingdom and glory? The Apocalypse, we would remark, was communicated for the purpose of imparting information to the servants of God in relation to the times, seasons, and signs, which till then were reserved with the Father. Being herein revealed, they are expected to study it, that they may be able to discern the signs of the times as they arrive, that when the great crisis comes, they may not be taken by surprise. To assist them in this is the object of this volume, which we commend to their Scriptural and critical examination as we proceed.
2. When the Apocalypse was written
Concerning the time when the Apocalypse was written there have been various opinions among the learned. Irenæus, who flourished ecclesiastically A. D. 169, that is, about seventy years after the death of the apostle John, is said to have introduced an opinion that the Apocalypse was written in the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, brother to Titus who destroyed Jerusalem, and who occupied the throne of the Cæsars from A. D. 80 to A. D. 96, when he was assassinated. John being the only apostle living at the time Irenæus supposes it to have been written, of course makes the Apocalypse the last of the sacred writings. Sir Isaac Newton does not fall in with Irenæus’ opinion. He says that he might perhaps have heard from Polycarp, who, in ecclesiastical style is called “his master,” that he had received the Apocalypse from John, with whom it is said he was personally acquainted, about the time of Domitian’s death: or that “John might himself at that time have made a new publication of it, from whence Irenæus might imagine it was then newly written.” But as John had no copyright in the Apocalypse, this supposition is not to be entertained. When he received it, he sent it to the Seven Ecclesias of Asia Minor, which would multiply copies to the fullest extent without any further coöperation of the apostle in the publication. Eusebius in his Chronicle and Ecclesiastical History adopts the opinion of Irenæus. This may strengthen it. Not that p. 37 Eusebius is any personal authority in the matter, having lived remoter from John’s day than Irenæus, (he “flourished” in the latter part of the third, and beginning of the fourth centuries,) but, being a historian of his own and preceding times, he would, it is presumable, adopt the opinion most generally received among the Christians of his own day. But he is thought to have invalidated the truth of it by conjoining the banishment of John into Patmos with the deaths of Peter and Paul, in his Evangelical Demonstrations. Paul is said to have been beheaded at Rome A. D. 65; others say A. D. 67. From his own writings, we may conclude that he was alive on the eve of the destruction of Jerusalem; but there is no indisputable evidence in them that he was really contemporary with that calamity and succeeding times. Speaking of the approaching abolition of the Mosaic constitution of things; the casting down of the host of heaven, of the stars, and of the truth to the ground; and the suppression of the daily sacrifice by the Little Horn of the Goat; he says in Heb. viii. 13, that having been made out of date, or antiquated, by the confirmation of the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah, it was εγγυς αφανισμου, nigh of vanishing away. He was therefore living nigh the time of the great destruction, when he wrote the letter to the Hebrews. But from 1 Thess. ii. 16, we may conclude that he lived so nigh to it as to witness its beginning, and perhaps its end. In writing to the faithful in Thessalonica, he says concerning the Jews, “who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and chased us out (εκδιωξαντων from διωκειν to pursue, or chase, and εκ out of, or from) and please not God, and are hostile to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, to the filling up of their sins continually:” he says of them, “But the wrath came (aoristically) upon them to the end,” εφθασε εις τελος. If this be accepted as the true rendering, it would indicate that the Jewish State had been destroyed; and that Paul was living after the destruction, contrary to the traditions of ecclesiastical writers. But if the aorist is taken indefinitely, it may be read “comes upon.” The Jews had chased the surviving apostles out of Judea, by which they escaped the terrible calamities that were about to fall upon Jerusalem, where they generally resided—Acts viii. 1. John and Paul were no more to be found in Judea; and Peter writes from Babylon 1 Pet. v. 13; but died before the siege. How long Paul may have lived after THE END, there is no reliable testimony to determine. Eusebius says that John was sent to Patmos at the time of Peter and Paul’s death. It may have been so; and John may have been an exile in Patmos for many years after being sent thither. There is no evidence to show how long he was an exile; or in what year of his sojourn in Patmos the Apocalypse was “indicated by sign” to him. Tradition p. 38 says he was there in the reign of Domitian; and his own testimony, that while there, he saw and heard in vision what is related.
Tertullian, who is contemporary with Irenæus, and Pseudo-Prochorus, say that John was banished by Nero to Patmos. Arethas, in the beginning of his commentary, quotes the opinion of Irenæus from Eusebius, but does not follow it; but afterwards affirms that the Apocalypse was written before the destruction of Jerusalem; and that former commentators had expounded the Sixth Seal of that destruction! Upon this we may remark, that he who would make such an exposition can have no opinion worthy of any regard.
The tradition of the Syrian Christians preserved in the title of the Syriac Version, is thought to agree with the opinion that the Apocalypse was written before the destruction of Jerusalem. The title is this, “The Revelation which was made to John the Evangelist by God in the island Patmos, into which he was banished by Nero the Cæsar.” Nero reigned before the fall of the city. He succeeded to Claudius in A. D. 54, or A. C. 57, which are equivalent; and continued to A. D. 68, or A. C. 71, a reign of 14 years. The temple was demolished A. D. 71, or A. C. 74. The Syriac title only testifies to the banishment of John; the Apocalypse may not have been written for several years after.
It may be objected in relation to the text in Thessalonians, that a different rendering may be put upon it without constraint, which would leave it undetermined whether Paul lived after the destruction or not. The words may be translated, “The wrath has come upon them for an end;” or came upon them to, or unto, an end. The verb εφθασε is the first aorist, and may be rendered by the past or by the indefinite present, which partakes both of the now and the hereafter. “The wrath cometh upon them to an end,” predicted by the prophets, Jesus in Matt. xxiv. 14, and the apostles. But as they were “hostile to all men,” it is likely that the wrath was outpouring, and that the Jews and Romans were in actual war; and that “the ending” so often proclaimed in their discourses, was witnessed by some of the apostles.
There is a little presumptive evidence in the Apocalypse itself that it was written after the death of perhaps all the apostles except John. The apostles, who were also prophets and saints, are invited to rejoice over the subversion of Rome and its institutions and dominion, in the judgment; because in her their blood was found. That is, Rome had put to death apostles and prophets, as well as Jerusalem, which was destroyed for the same offence. There would have been something incongruous in the view of John’s contemporaries who received the Apocalypse, to have read in ch. xviii. 20, 24, a charge of murdering apostles, if all the apostles slain had been put to death by the Jewish Power, which the Romans were employed to destroy.
p. 39 But some commentators are tenacious of the opinion that the Apocalypse was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, because, as it would seem, they desire to dispose of its difficulties more summarily than can be effected upon a contrary supposition. If it were not written till after Jerusalem was destroyed, what is to be done with the sealing of the thousands of Israel, in the seventh chapter; with the predicted treading of the Holy City under foot of the Gentiles, of the eleventh chapter; with that temple and altar mentioned in the first verse of the same? It is found most convenient to cast all these things into the fiery furnace of that destruction, and so to consume them out of the way. But it really matters not whether it be assumed to be written before, or after that event. The interpretation is in no way affected. The destruction of Jerusalem with its times and circumstances cannot be accommodated so as to interpret what is written in the Apocalypse about a “holy city,” a “temple” and “altar,” a “court,” a “Jerusalem,” and so forth. These are symbols, and represent something else than what the words stand for in common, or historical discourse.
The result of Sir Isaac Newton’s investigation in relation to the time when the Apocalypse was written may not be unacceptable to the reader; we shall quote it, therefore, from his Observations. “Seeing that Peter and John,” says he, “were apostles of the circumcision, it seems to me that they stayed with their churches in Judea and Syria till the Romans made war upon their nation, that is, till the twelfth year of Nero; that they then followed the main body of their flying churches into Asia, and that Peter went thence by Corinth to Rome; that the Roman empire looked upon those churches as enemies, because Jews by birth; and therefore, to prevent insurrections, secured their leaders, and banished John into Patmos. It seems also probable to me that the Apocalypse was there composed, and that soon after the Epistle to the Hebrews, and those of Peter, were written to these churches, with reference to this prophecy as what they were particularly concerned in. For it appears by these epistles that they were written in times of general affliction and tribulation under the heathens, and by consequence when the Empire made war upon the Jews; for till then the heathens were at peace with the Christian Jews, as well as with the rest. The Epistle to the Hebrews, since it mentions Timothy as related to those Hebrews, must have been written to them after their flight into Asia, where Timothy was a bishop; and by consequence after the war began, the Hebrews in Judea being strangers to Timothy. Peter seems also to call Rome, Babylon, as well with respect to the war made upon Judea, and the approaching captivity, like that under old Babylon, as with respect to that name in the Apocalypse: and in writing to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, p. 40 Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, he seems to intimate that they were the strangers newly scattered by the Roman wars; for those were the only strangers there belonging to his care.”
He thinks that this account of things agrees best with history duly rectified. We do not think, however, that a rectification is possible. The Ecclesiastical Writers of the period succeeding the times of the New Testament, are not reliable. They all belonged to that class of men who set up for successors of the apostles with clerical authority; and where facts were wanting, did not hesitate to substitute conjecture. For our own part, we rely upon nothing ecclesiastical outside the Old and New Testaments. What they testify we believe; but whereon they are silent, we have no faith. Peter may refer to Rome in using Babylon; but there is no evidence that he certainly does. If by Babylon he do indeed mean Rome, it favors the supposition that the Apocalypse was written before his decease; because this is the only Scripture extant in which Rome is certainly comprehended in the name. Chrysostom’s testimony somewhat confirms my view of the passage in Thessalonians. He says “that the apostles continued long in Judea, and that then, being driven out by the Jews, they went to the Gentiles. This dispersion was in the first year of the Jewish war, when the Jews, as Josephus tells us, began to be tumultuous and violent in all places. For all agree that the apostles were dispersed into several regions at once; and Origen has set down the time, telling us that in the beginning of the Judaic war the apostles and disciples were scattered into all nations.”
In conclusion, then, upon this point, I remark that, though the strongest evidence is for A. D. 96, yet it cannot be said with certainty in what year the Apocalypse was written. Irenæus says it was written towards the end of Domitian’s reign. It testifies for itself that it was written at some time during John’s sojourn in Patmos; but owing to the unreliable character of the testimony of the post-apostolical writers as it has come down to us through the polluted and corrupting channels of Greek and Latin Orthodoxies, we cannot say when John’s banishment occurred, how many years it continued, whether it began at the death of Peter and Paul, or before it, or during the Judaic war, or after the destruction of Jerusalem, or shortly before the assassination of Domitian. It may have been at any one of these times, and it may not. It would, indeed, satisfy curiosity to know, but that is all. The knowledge of these particular times does not at all affect the interpretation. This is independent of the Anno Domini of John’s exile. It was communicated to him after his removal from Judea from some cause; and subsequently to his going to Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, where also he sojourned in tribulation and endurance. This p. 41 is all he considered necessary for the reader to know, and therefore with this scanty information we shall endeavor to be satisfied.
3. Apocalypse Rooted in the Prophets
In treating of the causes which operated the rapid progress of the gospel in the first two hundred years of our era, the historian of the “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” thus expresses himself with reference to the great subject matter of the Apocalypse. “The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium,” says Gibbon, “was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of creation had been finished in six days, their duration, in their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. By the same analogy it was inferred that this long period of labor and contention, which was now almost elapsed (as they supposed), would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the Saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth till the time appointed for the last and general resurrection. So pleasing was this hope to the minds of believers, that the New Jerusalem, the seat of this blissful kingdom, was quickly adorned with all the gayest colors of the imagination. A felicity consisting only of pure and spiritual pleasure would have appeared too refined for its inhabitants, who were still supposed to possess their human nature and senses. A garden of Eden with the amusements of pastoral life, was no longer suited to the advanced state of society which prevailed under the Roman Empire. A city was therefore erected, of gold and precious stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn and wine was bestowed on the adjacent territory; in the free enjoyment of whose spontaneous productions, the happy and benevolent people was never to be restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive property. The assurance of such a millennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers, from Justin Martyr and Irenæus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine. Though it might not be universally received, it appears to have been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers; and it seems so well adapted to the desires and apprehensions of mankind, that it must have contributed in a very considerable degree to the progress of the Christian faith. But when the edifice of the church was almost completed, the temporary support was laid aside. The doctrine of Christ’s reign upon earth was at first treated as a profound allegory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism. A p. 42 mysterious propnecy (the Apocalypse) which still forms a part of the sacred canon, but which was thought to favor the exploded sentiment, has very narrowly escaped the proscription of THE CHURCH.”
This is the impartial testimony of a man who was well acquainted with the literature of the times contemporary with, and immediately succeeding, those of the apostles; and who conceived that the propagators of Christianity were deceived, and of such low morality that they did not hesitate to invent and promulgate lies to gain their ends. This was doubtless the case with the Babel builders of what Gibbon calls “the church;” but it is a gross calumny when insinuated against those “servants of God” to whom the Apocalypse was “sent.” Gibbon’s testimony, however, is important and useful in this:
1. That it proves that the nearer we approach to the times of the Apostles, the stronger and more universal was the belief of the Apocalyptic teaching concerning the Millennium, and reign of Christ and the Saints upon the earth;
2. That it was well adapted to the desires and apprehensions of mankind;
3. That so long as it continued the reigning sentiment, the faith rapidly progressed;
4. That when the edifice erecting by the Sons of Balaam and Jezebel was almost completed, the doctrine of Christ’s reign began to be abandoned;
5. That when they had completed the Apostasy, the doctrine was repudiated as heresy and fanaticism; and
6. That the Apocalypse itself had a narrow escape of being expelled from the canon of inspiration.
But here we beg leave to remark, that the doctrine of Messiah’s reign with the Saints on earth for a long season did not originate with the Apocalypse. It is the burden of all the prophets from Moses to Malachi. Moses teaches that the seed of Abraham shall be a great nation; that that nation with Abraham and his Seed, the prophet like to him, shall possess the Holy Land for ever; that all nations shall be blessed in them; and that then the whole earth shall be full of Jehovah’s glory. This is the future state which Moses preached as the gospel to Israel. Nor was the preaching confined to him. The proclamation was amplified in all the prophets. The “Songs of Jehovah” are full of it. Isaiah announced it in glowing terms, and tells us that in vision he saw the King upon his throne, who is to reign in righteousness, on Mount Sion and in Jerusalem gloriously in the presence of his Ancients, or Saints, whose death shall be swallowed up in victory—ch. vi. 1-5; xxxii. 1; xxiv. 23; xxv. 8. Jeremiah testifies to the same effect, telling us that Jehovah p. 43 will raise up to David a Righteous Branch; that this man shall be King of Israel, reigning and prospering, and executing judgment and justice in the earth; that in his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; that He shall be for the righteousness of the nation; that then Jerusalem shall be called the Throne of Jehovah; that all nations shall be concentred to it as the throne of empire; and that they shall all be enlightened, and blessed in their king, who shall be called “The God of the Whole Earth”—ch. iii. 17; xxiii. 5, 6; xxxiii. 15; Isai. liv. 5.
The Apocalypse in Ezekiel
Ezekiel prophesies that the Dry Tree of Israel, which now bears no fruit, shall be made to flourish in the mountain of the heights of Israel; where it shall shoot forth boughs, and bear fruit; and that under its branching foliage shall dwell all fowl of every wing—ch. xvii. 22-24. He tells us concerning that epoch, that the kingdom of Israel shall be given to a man of low station whose right it is; that he shall be a Plant of Renown; that he shall be a David; that he shall be Prince, or High Priest, of Israel for an Aion; that he shall be immortal; that the Holy Land shall be as the Garden of Eden, or Paradise; that the twelve tribes of Israel shall be a united nation, and form one kingdom in the land; that a magnificent temple shall be built in Jerusalem differing from that of Solomon; that the Dead Sea shall be healed, and become as productive of fish as the Mediterranean; and that from the time of the establishment of these things, the old name of the city shall be abolished—that it shall no longer be יראו Jeru, “they shall see,” שׁלם, shalaim, “peace;” but יהוה־שׁמה, Yahweh-shammah, HE WHO SHALL BE IS THERE—ch. xxi. 26, 27; xxxiv. 29, 23; xxxvii. 25, 22; xxxvi. 35; xlvii. 8-10; xlviii. 35.
The Apocalypse in Daniel
Daniel foretold the establishment of a kingdom which shall be a great military power in its beginning, and of perpetual continuance: that it should conquer all kingdoms extant in the Latter Days; that until then “the Kingdom of Men” would bear rule over all the earth—until seven times, 2520 years, should be completed; which is the age of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image from the first year of his reign, B. C. 608. That these two kingdoms, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Men, should be antagonist kingdoms in all their elements and principles; that till the end of a period of 1260 years, the Kingdom of Men should “prevail against the Saints,” or Heirs of the Kingdom of God; that it should also destroy the power of the Jews, and rule over Palestine to the end of that period; that when this end should arrive, the power of God p. 44 should be Apocalypsed, or revealed, in the person of Michael, the Prince of princes, who shall appear to deliver Israel, and awake the dead; that in effecting this deliverance, the thrones, or kingdoms of this world, shall be cast down, and the Kingdom of Men transferred to the Saints, who shall possess it under the whole heaven עד־עלמה ad·ahlmah, “during an Aion,” or Millennium, ועד עלם עלמיא, we·ad ahlam ahlmayah “even for the Aion of the Aions,” or “a season and a time”—ch. ii. 44; iv. 15, 16; viii. 24; vii. 21, 22, 25; xii. 1, 2; vii. 9, 18, 27, 12.
The Apocalypse in Hosea
Hosea declares that Judah shall be saved by Jehovah their Elohim; that is, by Messiah; that in the countries where it is now said to them, “Ye are not the people of Jehovah,” there they shall be called, “The sons of the living God.” He says also, that at that time Judah and Israel shall become a united nation, and agree to place themselves under One Chief; that he shall betroth the nation to himself for the Aion; that they shall hear Jezreel; that he shall be a David; and that this shall come to pass in the Latter Days; and that these, the days of their national resurrection, shall be “in the third day” after their being rent, and removed out of his sight. This can only mean during a third period of a thousand years. The present year of Ephraim’s rending and dispersion is 2588, which is synchronical with that of our era 1861—ch. i. 7, 10, 11; ii. 19, 22; iii. 4, 5; v. 14, 15; vi. 2.
The Apocalypse in Joel
Joel, though brief, is very explicit, and coincident with the above. After predicting terrible calamities upon Israel and their country by the lions of Assyria, and others, he consoles the nation with the assurance that after the Gentiles had filled up the measure of their abominations, Jehovah will be jealous for his land and will pity his people; and that they shall no more be made a reproach among the nations. He predicted that Jehovah will do great things, at which the children of Zion shall be glad, and that they shall rejoice in Jehovah, their Elohim, or Christ: that he would give them the latter rain of the Spirit, as on Pentecost, of the first month; and the former rain ל צדק litzdahkah, on account of righteousness, in the seventh month, which is also the first of the civil year. That in this period there shall be restoration, and that henceforth Jehovah’s people shall never be ashamed. He foretold that between the two Spirit-Rain periods, Zion’s Sun should be turned into darkness, and the Moon of her ecclesiastical heavens into blood, before the great and terrible Day of Jehovah should be apocalypsed, or revealed, upon Israel’s enemies; whose destruction shall proceed from Mount Zion and p. 45 Jerusalem, in which shall be deliverance for the remnant whom Jehovah shall call. He further makes known, that in the days of the Restoration of Judah and Jerusalem, Jehovah will gather all national armies into the valley of Jehoshaphat or Armageddon; and there contend with them in battle for the possession of the Holy Land: that on the eve of this contest a proclamation shall be made among the nations, stirring them up to the war, which in the Apocalypse is styled “the war of that great day of God Almighty:” that, at this epoch of restoration, Jehovah shall lead down his warriors to the conflict in the valley of judgment; that the harvest-sickle, and the vintage press, shall then do their work; that Jehovah, as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and shake the heavens and the earth of the non-Jewish world, whose Sun and Moon shall be darkened, and the shining of their stars shall be destroyed; that when this is consummated, Jerusalem shall be holy; and no strangers, or enemies, shall henceforth pass through her any more; that the land shall be as Paradise, flowing with wine and milk, being so rich in vines and pasturage, fountains and running streams; and to crown the whole, Joel testifies with Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, that Jehovah then dwells in Zion, the place of rest, and city of the Great King—ch. i. 6; ii. 18, 19, 23, 24, 26, 31, 32; iii. 1, 2, 9, 11-18, 20, 21.
The Apocalypse in Amos
Amos, who was contemporary with Isaiah, adds his testimony to a like effect. He says that Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; but that he will do nothing without first revealing it unto his servants the prophets. He predicted that the ten tribes of Israel should be carried into captivity beyond Damascus; that there should come a famine of hearing the words of Jehovah, and that Israel should run to and fro to seek the word, but should not find it, as it has come to pass for the past eighteen hundred years. He foretold the desolation of the kingdom in all its elements; but also that Jehovah will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob; but that he would sift them among all nations as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet that not one good seed should fall to the earth to rise no more: for that when the indignation shall be completed, Jehovah will raise up the dwelling-place of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; he will raise up David’s ruins, and build the kingdom AS IN THE DAYS OF OLD; that they who shall inherit it, may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the nations when Jehovah’s name shall be proclaimed to them: then Israel shall be planted upon their land, and rooted up no more from thence, saith Jehovah Elohim, who hath given it to them, and not to the Gentiles—ch. i. 2; iii. 7; v. 27; ix. 8, 11-15.
p. 46The Apocalypse in Obadiah
Edom, in the prophecies concerning the restoration of Israel’s kingdom in “the latter days,” is representative of the enemies of Jacob, banded together under the guardianship of Gog, who is then the Chief of the House of Esau. Obadiah had a vision of this Confederacy, occupying a similar relationship to Israel hereafter, that Edom did in the typical times of the prophet. Obadiah has placed on record the sentence that “Every one of the Mount of Esau shall be cut off by slaughter for ever, and shame shall cover them, because of their violence against Jacob;” that as Edom has drunk upon Jehovah’s holy mountain, (where also they revel to this day), so shall all the nations drink, and they shall be as though they had not been: for that upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions; and the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, (or as Paul styles it, “a fire of flame” in 2 Thess. i. 8,) and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; and that at the time appointed for this, deliverers shall come up in Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau; and the kingdom thus obtained shall be Jehovah’s—verses 9, 10, 16-18, 21.
The Apocalypse in Micah
Micah was contemporary with the times of Amos and Isaiah. He opens his prophecy apocalyptically by saying, “Behold Jehovah cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.” He predicted that because of the iniquity of the Israelites and their rulers, Zion should be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem should become heaps, and the mountain on which the temple stood as the high places of the forest. But, he goes on to say, that Zion, Moriah, and Jerusalem, although thus trodden under foot of destroyers, should not always be abased. He coincides with Isaiah, and testifies in the same words, that in the latter days yet future, the kingdom of Jehovah, which he terms “The mountain of the house of Jehovah,” shall have the sovereignty over the empires and kingdoms of the earth, and that all nations shall concentre around its throne: that Jehovah the Elohim of Jacob will enlighten, or apocalypse them, and that they will in consequence walk in his ways: that a law and a word will be promulgated from Zion and Jerusalem, and be universally obeyed: that war will then be abolished, peace be established as the order of the day, and good-will everywhere prevail. He further testifies, that Israel shall then be a strong nation, with Jehovah (Christ) reigning p. 47 over them in Mount Zion from thenceforth, and for the Olahm, or Millennium—the First Dominion shall come to Zion; and the kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem. But he also testifies, that before this exaltation to dominion, Zion’s daughter should dwell in Babylon, in the ten streets of which she is a wanderer to this day: that in Babylon she shall be delivered: in Babylon Jehovah shall redeem her from the hand or power of her enemies, the Gentiles. He testifies that when the time of this deliverance shall arrive, the Daughter of Zion (which is constituted of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the Saints) shall arise and thresh with horn of iron and hoof of brass, and beat in pieces many people, whose spoil shall be consecrated to Jehovah the Judge of Israel, and the Adon or Sovereign Ruler of the whole earth; who, in the days of his humanity, should be smitten with a rod upon the cheek by the rebellious.
Isaiah had foretold that the Judge of Israel should come of the house of David (Isai. ix. 6, 7); and Micah predicted he should be born in Bethlehem Ephratah. But, because of the unworthy treatment he should experience at their hands, he should abandon the nation to its calamities, until the time of Zion’s travail, when he shall be apocalypsed as a thief in the night; and then the remnant of his brethren shall return on account of the children of Israel.
He goes on furthermore to say, that in this day of apocalypse, the Judge of Israel shall stand and rule in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah his Eloah; that Israel shall then abide, or dwell safely in the Holy Land, because their Divine King shall be great to the ends of the earth. That when he is apocalypsed in the day of Zion’s travail, writhing in pain under Gentile oppression, the Bethlehem-born Judge of Israel shall be the nation’s peace; because He and his brethren princes shall expel the Assyrian from Judea, and, carrying the war into the land of Nimrod, shall reduce the enemy to the necessity of suing for peace, which will be granted with the loss of dominion and independence. That the remnant of Jacob in more distant nations of the earth shall be as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among a flock of sheep; who, if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.
But though Israel is to do valiantly in the latter days, he showed that they should previously suffer much because of iniquity, transgression, and sin. That they would be not only nationally corrupt, but socially treacherous and cruel, so that a man’s enemies would be those of his own house. That, though they should cause the fall of One, he should rise again; and though they should cause him to sit in the darkness of death, Jehovah should become to him a light. That after this cruel treachery, p. 48 Jerusalem, his enemy, should be covered with shame, and trodden down as mire in the streets; and that when the day of her rebuilding should arrive, the decree authorizing it should come from afar.
Micah, perceiving that there was hope in Israel’s end, petitions Jehovah in their behalf. He prays that they may be fed in Bashan and Gilead “AS IN THE DAYS OF OLD.” His supplication is heard, and he is informed by Jehovah that their Exodus from Babylon should be after the type and duration of that from Egypt into Canaan: that in this exodus from Babylon the nations shall be confounded when they shall behold the prowess of the Jews; that they shall lick the dust like a serpent, and be afraid of Jehovah our Elohim (Christ), for he will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations, such as they have not heard.
But concerning Israel the prophet testifies, that the Conqueror of the nations will pass by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage that he will have compassion on them; that he will subdue their iniquities, and cast all their sins into the depth of the sea; that he will perform the truth to Jacob, the mercy to Abraham, which he has sworn to Israel’s fathers from the days of old—ch. i. 3; ii. 12, 13; iii. 12; iv 1-4, 7, 8, 10, 13; v. 1-8, 15; vii. 6, 8, 10, 11, 14-20.
The Apocalypse in Nahum
Nahum saw Israel oppressed by Neneveh; and predicted its overthrow, because its monarch was wicked, and imagined evil against Jehovah. But Israel’s deliverance from the Assyrian by the fall of Nineveh was only the type of a greater deliverance at the apocalypse of Messiah. The prophet, therefore, looking forward to this, concerning which Micah’s testimony is already before the reader, says, “Behold upon the mountains the feet of HIM that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows; for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off”—ch. i. 15. This must be future, because the wicked are not yet cut off, but are in possession of the Holy Land.
The Apocalypse in Habakkuk
Now while Nahum looked at the latter day deliverance of Israel through the fall of Nineveh, Habakkuk contemplated the same consummation through the typical fall of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dynasty. He saw Babylon in the plenitude of its power. Success would intoxicate the Golden Head, whose spirit would change, and he would transgress and offend by imputing his power to his own strength. And while Babylon triumphed, he saw that Israel and the nations were enclosed in p. 49 its net, being subjected thereby to spoliation and great distress. He was desirous to know what all this would result in. He therefore besought Jehovah to reveal to him what the end would be. His petition was granted, and the consummation was represented to him in a vision, which is to speak “at the end.” He saw in that epoch, which is termed “the Day of Trouble,” a chief of nations, proud, covetous, rapacious, and impious, as Belshazzar; who will not confine himself to his own territories, but will enlarge his desire as the grave, and will be as death, which cannot be satisfied, but will gather to his throne all nations, and laden himself with all people as with thick clay. He saw this Power in vision execrated in its time as the spoiler of the nations, and the violator of the land of Israel, Jerusalem, and its inhabitants. This is the Gog of Ezekiel, the Assyrian of Isaiah and Micah, the King of the North of Daniel, the Lawless One of Paul, and the Dragon of Apoc. xx. Habakkuk saw that “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea;” but he saw also that this could not be the character of the times until this CLAY-POWER should be removed out of the way. It was accordingly shown to him that the power should be broken by certain who should “rise up suddenly” and “awake;” and that the sleepers who shall awake to life and stand upon their feet for action, shall bite, and vex, and spoil him. These are the Saints he saw in vision, in whose midst is the STONE OF THE WALL, which shall cry out against him.
After the prophet had seen the vision, and heard the speech accompanying it, in his hymn to Jehovah he recounts the glorious apocalypse he beheld. He saw Israel in extremity, and the Thick-Clay Power in Egypt in all the confidence of victory. But the Stone out of the Wall makes proclamation against him, which results only in stirring him up to fury; and the prophet sees his hosts in tempestuous motion “coming out as a whirlwind to scatter me, and rejoicing in the prospect of devouring the poor in the lurking-place.” The tents of Cushan and Midian, in this “day of Midian”—Isai. ix. 4—overspread the wilderness of Mount Paran, the country of Teman, situated between Palestine and Egypt, south of the Mediterranean, and between the Gulph of Suez and the Gulph of Akaba or Elath, north of Mount Sinai. The mistar, or lurking-place of Judah’s Lion, the place of his encampment in the vision, is the region of Edom and Moab running down to the Gulph of Elath. After the type of the Exodus from Egypt, Jehovah will rise up from Seir, and shine forth from Mount Paran—Isai. xvi. 3, 4; Dan. xi. 41; Deut. xxxiii. 2; Hab. iii. 3. This arrangement places the Gulph of Elath, “the Tongue of the Egyptian Sea” (Isai. xi. 15), the Elanitic Gulph of the Red Sea; in other words, between the Gogian army of p. 50 Egypt, and, as the Egyptian forces imagine, the feeble and dispirited outcasts of Moab. But they know not that with these outcasts is the antitypical Joshua, the prophet like unto Moses, and the antitypical Gideon, with the sword of Jehovah and his chosen band, as represented in Apoc. xix. 14; xvii. 14. If the reader keep these geographical relations before his mind, he will discern what Habakkuk testifies in saying, “Thou didst march thine horses into the sea through a heap of great waters;” “was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thy horses, thy chariots of salvation?” No, the prophet saw that the wrath was against the tents of Cushan, and the curtains of the land of Midian, which, when they came to see the waters open a way into their encampment for their enemy’s cavalry, trembled in dismay. Brightness as the light burst forth upon them; beams of light from his hand, the hiding-place of his power. The prophet saw him march on in indignation, and thresh the heathen in anger. The conqueror’s feet were like hind’s feet; he overtook the flying enemy, and cut them in pieces with his troops. Israel in Egypt had cried unto Jehovah because of the oppressors, and he sent them “a Saviour, even a Great One,” whom Habakkuk beholds from his watch-tower. “Thou wentest forth,” says he, “for the salvation of thy people, for salvation with thy Christ (Anointed) thou woundedst the Head of the house of the wicked.” Thus Jehovah becomes known to Egypt, and his outcasts in the land of Egypt are redeemed, and the way opened for them to return to the land of promise. The land of Judah now becomes a terror to the land of Egypt, and is terribly smitten from thence; so that every Egyptian that maketh mention thereof shall tremble because of the counsel of Jehovah of armies, which he determines against it. His counsel is this. “I will bring Israel again out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria, and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, and room shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the sea in adversity, and he shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up; and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away”—Zech. x. 10, 11.
But though Jehovah Elohim shall thus “smite Egypt,” he will afterwards “heal it.” His conquests, however, and its terrible accompaniments will never be forgotten. For “in that day five cities in the land of Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan, and swear allegiance to Jehovah of armies. City of the Destruction shall one be called. In that day there shall be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to Jehovah: and it shall be for a sign, and for a witness to Jehovah of armies in the land of Egypt. And the Egyptians shall know Jehovah in that day, and shall do sacrifice p. 51 and oblation; yea, they shall promise a votive offering to Jehovah, and perform. And they shall turn to Jehovah, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them. In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria; and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land; whom Jehovah of armies shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance”—Isai. xix. 17-25.
After the conquest of Egypt, then, Habakkuk, whose position may be supposed to be Jerusalem, sees, in the vision of the end, “Eloah coming out of Teman, and the Holy One (or Christ) from Mount Paran.” He has now taken away the dominion of the Lion and the Bear from India to Ethiopia, and possesses for his own Egypt, Israel, and Assyria. “His glory covers the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise.” In making these conquests, and those which remain, in relation to the Leopard, and the Fourth Beast of Daniel, “the pestilence goes from before him, and a flame from his feet.” What follows is very grand. Viewing the work of conquest to be done, the prophet says, “He stood and surveyed the earth; he beheld, and drove asunder the nations: and the mountains of antiquity (or empires) were scattered, the perpetual hills (or ancient kingdoms) did bow: the ways of antiquity are for him.” That is, the kingdoms and empires existing in the hour of the end are for Jehovah’s Christ. These “mountains saw him and trembled: the overflowing of the water,” their military inundation, “passed by: the deep uttered his voice,” the roaring of the bottomless pit of nations; but He, after the type of Joshua, commanded “the Sun and the Moon to stand still in their habitation; and his arrows went in the light, and his glittering spear in the shining.” Judah his bow, and Ephraim his arrow, arrest the sun and moon of the Gentile heavens, and go in the light thereof.
The Apocalypse in Zephaniah
Zephaniah was contemporary with Jeremiah, and prophesied in the reign of Josiah, king of Judah. Jehovah declared by him, that he would utterly consume all things, constituting Judah’s commonwealth, from off the Holy Land. This was to come to pass, because Jerusalem “obeyed not the voice; received not correction; trusted not in Jehovah; drew not near to her Elohim. Her princes within her were as roaring lions; her judges as evening wolves; her prophets light and treacherous persons; and her priests had polluted the sanctuary, and done violence to the law.” We can look back by the light of history, and see how p. 52 terrible hath been the indignation of Jehovah and his Christ. The sea coast of Palestine, once so rich and flourishing in the hands of the Philistines, has become, as Zephaniah predicted, “dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks;” and “an afflicted and poor people only is left in the midst of the land.” The Philistines, and Moab, and Ammon, and Nineveh, and Khushistan, people all contemporary with the prophet, have all passed away as he foretold; and a despised remnant of his countrymen alone continue, a living monument of woe.
But of this remnant and their country the prophet has recorded great and glorious things. “The sea coast,” says he, “shall be for the house of Judah; and they shall feed thereupon: for Jehovah their Elohim shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.” “They shall spoil Moab and Ammon; and shall possess them.” This change in the fortunes of the poor and afflicted remnant of Israel, the prophet shows, is to occur at a period when Jehovah’s wrath is to be let loose against the nations. Jehovah informs us through the prophet, what his determination is with respect to the world at the coming crisis. Addressing the afflicted remnant, Jehovah says “Wait ye for me, until the day that I rise up to the prey”—“the Day of Wrath and Apocalypse” of Paul: “for my determination is to gather the nations, to assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger; for with the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be devoured.”
The result of this manifestation and outpouring of wrath will be sevenfold;
1. The Apocalypse of Jehovah, the King of Israel in Jerusalem;
2. The taking away of judgments from Jerusalem;
3. The purification and pardon of the remnant;
4. The exaltation of Israel to fame and praise throughout the world;
5. Their restoration to the Holy Land from all parts of the earth;
6. The abolition of all the “Names and Denominations,” and other superstitions of every form, shade, and color, that now bewilder and divide mankind; and which are sustained as elements of the civil and ecclesiastical polity of the nations; and,
7. The establishment of One Religion and One Government for all the world.
In view of these things, the prophet exclaims, “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem,” “the Mother of us all”—Gal. iv. 26. Jehovah hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy; the King of Israel, Jehovah, is in the midst of thee: THOU SHALT NOT SEE EVIL ANY MORE. Jehovah thine Elohim (that is, the Mystical Christ) in the midst of thee is mighty: He will save; he will rejoice over thee with p. 53 joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing. Behold at that time I will undo all that afflict thee; and I will save her that halteth, and will gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.”
It is manifest, however, to every considerate person, that this glorious result for Israel and the Saints (for the one is not redeemed without the other) can only be consequent upon the binding of the Dragon and conquest of the kings of the earth, as represented in the Apocalypse. The governments must be broken as a potter’s vessel, or Israel, the Saints, and the nations, cannot attain the blessing promised. The testimony of all the prophets concurs in this; and that when broken, the grand obstacle to the world’s blessedness will be removed; and that “then will Jehovah turn to the peoples a pure lip, that they may all call upon the name of Jehovah, to serve him with one consent. For he will famish all the Elohim of the earth, (among whom are the clerical soul-traders of the Apocalypse,) and men shall worship him, every one from his country, all the isles of the nations”—ch. i. 1; ii. 6, 7, 9, 11; iii. 1-4, 8, 9, 14-19.