7. Also to the angel of the ecclesia in Philadelphia write; These things saith the holy one, the true one, he having the key of the David, opening and no one shutteth, and he shuts and no one openeth: 8. I have observed thy works; behold, I have placed before thee a door which hath been opened, and no one is able to shut it; because thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 9. Behold, I give up out of the synagogue of the Satan them who say that they are Jews, yet are not, but do lie; behold I will cause them that they come and have prostrated themselves before thy feet, and that they may have known that I have loved thee. 10. Seeing that thou hast kept the word of my awaiting, I also will keep thee from the hour of the trial being about to come upon the whole habitable to prove them who dwell upon the earth. 11 Behold, I come quickly; hold fast what thou hast, that no one may have seized upon thy coronal wreath. 12. The victor, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my Deity, and he shall not at all go away out more; and I will write upon him the name of my Deity, and the name of the city of my Deity, the New Jerusalem, which descendeth out of the heaven from my Deity, even my new name. 13. He having an ear to hear let him hearken to what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias—ch. iii. 7-18.
This epistle of the Spirit, like all the rest, is to the ecclesias, or associations of the called, in all the habitable of the Fourth Beast dominion, through the Angel-Presbytery of the ecclesia in Philadelphia. How p. 373 many ruling and gift-possessing brethren the Philadelphian “Angel” consisted of, cannot be told. We may conjecture, however, that there were not fewer than seven; to each of whom was given grace, or a spiritual gift, “according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” This official seven may be enumerated as constituted of an apostle, a prophet, a teacher, an inworker of power, a healer of disease, a helper or discerner of spirits, a linguist, and an interpreter. These ranked in the order I have stated them, and being all inspired men constituted a “A STAR” of divine brightness to all in Philadelphia disposed to avail themselves of its light. They were what Paul styles in his letter to the Philippians, the Episcopoi and Diakonoi, the overseers and servants of the flock; and it is worthy of remark, that no accusation is brought against them, as in the case of the angels of Ephesus, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea; which were troubled with pastors of ambitious and haughty manners; and others who sought to figure as such as a means of emolument at the general expense—merchandizers of souls, who saw no more in godliness than the lucre to be gained.
1. “The Holy and True”
In the epistle before us, the Spirit presents himself as “the Holy One and True One:” as the Holy One of whom the prophets spake. In the vision which Isaiah saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, he styles YAHWEH, the Holy One of Israel—ch. i. 4. He predicted that Judah would turn his back upon him; and that if “a very small remnant” had not been left, the nation would have become like Sodom and Gomorrha, and would have partaken of their fate. This “remnant” is that portion of the Jews which accept Jesus of Nazareth as “the Holy One of Ail;” who in Apoc. i. 18, says, “I am the First and the Last and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold I am living for the Aions of the Aions: the Amen.” This is the AIL GIVBOR, the Hero-Power, or “Mighty God,” to whom Shearyahshuv, or the “remnant shall return,” called the remnant of Jacob, “which shall stay upon Yahweh the Holy One of Israel”—Isai. x. 20, 21.
If the reader peruse this prophet attentively, he will see that the Eternal Spirit, who styled himself YAHWEH at the bush, identifies himself with “the Holy One,” as in the form quoted, “Yahweh the Holy One of Israel.” But in Hos. xi. 9, the Spirit saith, “I will not RETURN to destroy Ephraim; for I am AIL, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of Iarael.” Now in Isai. x. 17, a distinction is apparent between Yahweh and the Holy One. YAHWEH is there presented as “the Light p. 374 of Israel for a fire;” and the Holy One as “HIS Holy One for a flame:” but in ch. xliii. 3, 11, he saith to Israel, “I am Yahweh thine Elohim, the Holy One of Israel, thy savior: I even I, Yahweh, and beside me there is no savior.” Yet the Spirit saith to AIL, concerning his “flesh” or his “soul,” “MY flesh shall dwell in confidence; for thou wilt not leave MY soul in Sheol (the place of the dead) nor wilt thou permit THY godly one to see corruption”—Ps. xvi. 9. Here the “godly one” in death, the Spirit styles his flesh, or his soul. That dead flesh, or soul, was not the Holy One; but when that mortal and corruptible flesh, or soul, was made alive by the Spirit of AIL, it became the “Yahweh Elohim, the Holy One of Israel;” or Yahweh, and his Holy One”—the Light, the Fire, and the Flame of Israel.
“That which has been born out of the Spirit is spirit.” The Spirit-Logos first became flesh; and at its resurrection, that flesh became spirit; and therefore, “the Holy One and the True One;” for the Spirit is holiness and truth.
The glorified Jesus is the Logos or Divine Spirit, in Holy-Spirit flesh—πνευμα ἁγιωσυνης—the Holy and True One. Before he was “perfected by Spirit,” in speaking the words of the Spirit, he said, “I am the Way, THE TRUTH, and the Life;” and “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;” and the reason he gave was that he was “in the Father, and the Father in him”—John xiv. 6, 9, 10.
In reference to this Elohal manifestation of the truth, John says, “We know that the Son of the Deity hath come, and hath given to us understanding that we may know THE TRUE ONE—and we are in THE TRUE ONE in His Son Jesus Anointed: the same is the true Deity and the Life of the Aion;” or Aion Life—1 Ep. v. 20. To be “in him” is “the Way;” therefore he is “the Way:” the True Deity is the Anointed Logos in flesh, styled “Jesus Anointed;” and therefore “the Truth;” and the Aion-Life is “Christ our life;” and therefore “the Life.”
“The law was given through Moses, the gracious gift and the truth came through Jesus Anointed”—John i. 17. He that saw Jesus did not see that “gift and truth,” which was DEITY. John plainly declares this in the next verse, for he says, “No one hath seen Deity (or the Godhead, the Fountain and Origin of all things) at any time: the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him.” Paul also testifies the same thing in 1 Tim. vi. 16, saying, “No man hath seen, nor can see him.” The Revealer, then, is the Faithful and True Witness, and what he saith about the Deity, his purposes, and so forth, is “the truth;” and that truth in its power, wisdom, and fulness, was deposited in Jesus; for “it pleased that all the fulness should dwell in him.” The law contained the form of the knowledge and of the truth. p. 375 It was only a shadow of future things; a figure for the time then present; the patterns of the things in the heavens; the antitypes of the true—but the knowledge and the truth, and the heavenly things themselves, constituting “the body” or substance, are of “THE ANOINTED.” Without the anointing there is nothing.
2. The Key of the House of David
The Holy and True One is the possessor of the Key of David. He holds this, and the Keys of Hades and of Death; and the Key of the Abyss—ch. i. 18; xx. i. A key is symbolical of power to open and shut; hence, the Anointed One saith in this writing, that he openeth and shutteth, and no one can prevent him.
The key is styled “of the David,” because there is a something connected with David to be opened and shut. This something is revealed in the prophets. There it is styled “the Key of the House of David;” that is, of his kingdom—Isai. xxii. 22. In this chapter, two states of the Kingdom of David are prefigured by the names of two of Hezekiah’s officers—SHEBNA and ELIAKIM. The former, derived from שׁבה, shavah, “to lead captive,” represents the kingdom in a dispersed and ruined condition; and the latter from אל, AIL, God, and יקים, yahkim, “shall set up,” indicates the restoration of the kingdom by Divine Power. Hence, Ail-yahkim, or Eliakim, is a typical name for the restoration power, which is Deity in David’s Son, or the Christ. Of this Eliakim, the Spirit in Isaiah saith to Shebna, Hezekiah’s treasurer, “I will call him, and clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the Key of the House of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as A NAIL in an established habitation: and he shall be for a THRONE OF GLORY for the house of his father. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of the house of his father, the earth-products and the shoots, all vessels of the small, from vessels of the wash-troughs, even to all vessels of the skins.”
This is a very interesting typical prophesy. We presume, that no one will be so obtuse as to suppose that the things written were fulfilled in Eliakim the son of Hilk-Yah. Very little is left on record concerning him in the bible. From this we learn, that while Shebna was Secretary of State and Treasurer, Eliakim was over the King’s Household in Hezekiah’s reign, and at the time of the destruction of the Assyrian host by a blast from Divine Power, and the consequent p. 376 deliverance of Jerusalem and Judah from the oppressor. His name, the peculiar circumstances of the time, and his position in David’s kingdom, all combined to make him a very fit person for a Messianic representative. Shebna was officially identified with the law which was to vanish away; while Eliakim was officially identified with the kingdom of David which Divine Power will set up when the time arrives to deliver the remnant of the captivity.
The Ail-yakim, or Eliakim, typified, then, is “MESSIAH THE PRINCE,” in whom all is to be accomplished that was typically spoken of Eliakim. Shebna’s robe, girdle, and government, are all to be transferred to the Christ; who will be both scribe and treasurer when Divine Power, or AIL, shall set up, yakim (or Eliakimize) the tabernacle of David which has fallen down, “and set it up as in the days of old”—Acts xv. 16; Amos ix. 11. Then will he be “a Father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.”
Isaiah remarks, that the Eliakim should wear his key upon his shoulder, as a mark of office, of his power to open and shut with authority; thereby indicating that he is the Grand Master and Chief of the House of David. Callimachus says, that Ceres carried a key upon her shoulder; a custom that appears very strange to us; but the ancients had large keys in the form of a sickle, and which from their weight and shape, could not otherwise be carried conveniently.
For the key of the house of David, then, to rest upon the Eliakim’s shoulder, is equivalent to the government of that house, or of Israel, resting there. This is evident from the prophet’s allusion to “the shoulder” in ch. ix. 6. In this place, speaking of the “Son to be given” to the house of David, who should be called AIL-GIVBOR, the Mighty Power, AVI-AD, Father of Futurity, SAR-SHAHLOM, Prince of Peace, the Spirit says,” “the government shall be upon his shoulder.” This can mean nothing else than that the government then on the shoulder of Ahaz the reigning prince of Judah, should at some future time rest upon the shoulder of a Divine Son of David’s house, named IMMANUEL, or “God with us,” as typified by one of the prophet’s family: and this idea is symbolically expressed by the apocalyptic phrase, “I have the Key of the David, opening and no one shutteth, and shutting and no one openeth.” “The key of the David” is an elliptical phrase. The words to be supplied are indicated by Isaiah: according to him, “house of,” in the sense of kingdom of, should intervene between “key of the” and the name “David.” Thus, the Spirit-Man who was dead and is living as the Holy One and the True God, in speaking to the Star-Angel in Philadelphia, and through them to all the ecclesias, declares that he is the Eliakim; and that the government of the kingdom p. 377 of David is with him; and that holding the keys, he will “set it up as in the days of old.”
But furthermore, the Spirit-Man being the AIL-yakim, is also “the Nail” and the “Throne of Glory.” “The words of the wise are as fastened nails given from one shepherd.” The word of the only wise Deity when incarnated, is therefore fitly represented by “a nail fastened in a sure place.” Of this nail, the Spirit in Zechariah said, that it should come out of Judah—ch. x. 4. The “sure place” in which it is to be fastened, Ezra designates as “Yahweh Elohim’s holy place,” in which he and the remnant of the captivity returned from Babylon, were then sojourning; that is, in Jerusalem. This accords with the true import of מקום נאמן, mahkom nĕămahn, which signifies an established habitation. This is the “sure place” in which THE NAIL is to be fastened—in Jerusalem then a peaceable, quiet, and established habitation—Isai. xxxii. 18; xxxiii. 20.
The Spirit-Man is also to be for “a Throne of Glory.” A throne is an elevated seat with a canopy and hangings which cover it. Hence, the Eliakim in the passage before us, is styled metaphorically כסא kissai, from the root kahsah “to cover.” “He shall be for a Cover of Glory for the house of his Father;” for “He shall bear the glory, and sit and rule upon his throne”—Zech. vi. 13: he shall be “a wall of fire round about, and the Glory in the midst of Jerusalem—ch. ii. 5. As the glory sat enthroned between the Cherubim in the times of the law, so it shall be seated upon the Eliakim and his brethren in the apocalyptic Aion of a thousand years.
Isaiah saw this throne of glory in a vision, in the year that king Uzziah died. He tells us that it was an exalted throne, and that the King, YAHWEH TZ’VAOTH, was sitting upon it. Around it stood the Seraphim, who proclaimed superlative holiness, and announced that the whole earth was full of his glory—ch. vi. 1-5. This vision has been reproduced in Rev. iv., of which we shall treat more at large when we arrive at that chapter in our exposition.
Isaiah tells us in regard to “the Nail,” that all the glory of the house of the Eliakim’s father shall be suspended upon him; and appositely informs us, that this glory consists of what in the Common Version is termed, “the offspring and the issue.” These are in the original הצאצאים והצפיעות hatzĕătzaim we-hatzphioth; literally, earth-products and shoots; in other words, those who, “sown in dishonor,” are “raised in glory.” They are styled also “all vessels of the small;” that is, “the poor of this world rich in faith, who are heirs of the kingdom,” and termed “the small” in Rev. xi. 18, in relation to “the great”—the small, being compared to wash-troughs; and the p. 378 latter, to the vessels made of skins to hold wine, and other choice fluids.
Such is to be the glory that is permanently to cluster around the Eliakim. But before that glorious consummation is developed, the Spirit declared that “the Nail fastened in an established place shall depart: and it shall be cut off, and fall; and that suspended upon it shall be cut down: for Yahweh hath spoken.” This cutting off the Nail, and his departure, occurred in the nailing of Jesus to the cross, and his subsequent assumption. The apocalypse symbolizes in “the Lamb slain” this cutting off, and in the tribulation or trial then “about to come upon the whole habitable,” the cutting down of that suspended by faith upon the Nail.
The Eliakim who hath the key of the house of David informs all of the Philadelphian class of saints, that he opens and shuts, and none can hinder. He reminds them that an open door had been set before them. He had sent Paul to Ephesus, where he continued, “disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of the Deity,” for two whole years; “so that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks”—Acts xix. 8-10. Hence, the Philadelphians, being inhabitants of Asia, had heard it among the rest.
During all that time he opened his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel. The result was that they came to the understanding of “the word” and confessed “the name,” which, owing to the “little strength” they still retained when the apocalypse was written, they had “kept” and “not denied.”
They had learned “the things of the Kingdom” or “the word;” and “the things of the Name.” That kingdom was the subject-matter of “the word,” styled by Isaiah “the law and the testimony;” and which is the rule of speaking for all who walk in the light. They knew that it was the Kingdom of David to be set up by the Deity of the heavens in the land of Israel; that it was to consist of the twelve tribes grafted into their own Olive Tree upon their acknowledgment of Jesus as King of Israel; and that, although they were by nature aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, the “Strait Gate” and “Narrow Way” had been “set before them as an open door, which no one could shut.” Peter had opened the door or gate which gave admission into “the way” which leads to the Kingdom. He had opened it to the Jew on Pentecost, and to the nations at the house of Cornelius; not, indeed, by his own power, but by His which descended upon him in baptism of spirit, even by the power of Him “who openeth and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.”
p. 379 “The keys of the kingdom of the heavens” having been thus apostolically employed, the Philadelphians were all alive to the Spirit’s allusion to the key of the house of David in his possession. This announcement would fall powerless upon the ear of modern clerical assemblies. These have no more interest in David the son of Jesse than had the revolters against David’s house in the days of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to go a whoring after the calves at Bethel. Not so the Philadelphians. They had kept the word of the kingdom treasured up in their affections; so that any mention of the Key of David would be responded to with heartfelt and abiding interest and joy.
But, they had not only kept the word of the Spirit, they had also “not denied his Name.” They were not contaminated with the current heresies which denied that he had been manifested in Sin’s flesh. They kept the word of the kingdom against those who made it of none effect by teaching that souls went to kingdoms beyond the skies at death; and they held fast to the Spirit’s name against those who abolished it by their gnosis and oppositions of science, falsely so called; which were the pith and poison, or “divinity” of the Synagogue of the Satan, as at this day.
The Synagogue of the Satan with its clergy were arrayed against those who kept the word and held fast the name, in every city. The Satanists, as they have done ever since, contended that they were the true Jews; the genuine Israel of God. They contended for the ascendancy, and at length attained it; and when they had established their usurpation over the faithful, they aimed at supremacy in the Roman State, and acquired it also; upon which they turned round upon their former brethren, and persecuted them to bonds, imprisonment, and death. They scorned the idea of the humble poor in Christ being the special objects of his affection; and not such men as Origen and Eusebius, “the transformed ministers of the Satan.” But, “the seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of the Deity, were gone forth into all the earth.” He had observed their works. He saw that they were irreclaimable; therefore he said, “Behold, I give up out of the Synagogue of the Satan them who say that they are Jews, yet are not, but do lie.” The Spirit would abandon them to their own delusions, as Paul had predicted in 2 Thess. ii. 10, saying, “Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, the Deity for this cause shall send upon them Strong Delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be condemned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness”—that system of doctrine they style “orthodoxy.” They were not Jews. The true faith was not in them; p. 380 and consequently, although immersed, they were not in Christ; and not being “in him” they could not be Abraham’s Seed, and were not therefore “heirs according to the promise.”
But though to be given up as reprobates, they were not to go unpunished. They were to be subjected to “an hour of trial being about to come upon the whole habitable to make proof of them who dwell upon the earth.” This was a proximate visitation. A remoter and ultimate one was in store for them, which would result in their acknowledgment of those who kept the word, and denied not the Spirit’s name, as his beloved; and not only so, but that they shall come up, and prostrate themselves at the feet of those they have despised. “Behold, I will bring upon them,” saith the Spirit, even calamity, when they shall “be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb”—“that they may have come and prostrated before thy feet, and may have known that I have loved thee.”
3. The Hour of Trial
But while they of the synagogue of the Satan were to be subjected to great calamity in all the Roman Habitable, the Star-Angel and ecclesia of Philadelphia, contemporary with the apostle John, together with all the ecclesias who “kept the word of the patient waiting for Christ,” were to be preserved from it. The words of the Spirit to the ecclesias are, “Seeing that thou hast kept the word of the patient waiting for me, I also will keep thee from the hour of the trial being about to come upon the whole habitable to make proof of them who dwell upon the earth.” This “hour of trial” was not to arrive in the lifetime of that generation of saints. It was an hour “being about to come;” that is, in their future, or, as the event proved, in A. D. 248; about one hundred and fifty years after the apocalypse was revealed. This afforded time for the Satanists to fill up the measure of their iniquity, and for the faithful to depart to their graves in peace; for a long peace of thirty-seven years preceded the outbreak of the fiery trial under the emperor Decius. During this tranquility, historians testify that “a deep declension from Christian purity had taken place, not only in the East, where false philosophy aided its progress, but also in the West, where the operation of no peculiar cause can be traced beyond the common influence of prosperity on human depravity. This is completely evident from Cyprian’s account; and it deserves to be remarked, that the first grand and general declension after the primary effusion of the Divine Spirit, should be fixed about the middle of the Third Century”—Milner Eccl. Hist., p. 165.
p. 381 As we have said, a hundred and fifty years had elapsed from the writing of this epistle to the Philadelphians, to the beginning of this judgment upon the House of God, for the ecclesias in general, or collectively, were still “his habitation through the Spirit,” inasmuch as he had not then as yet “spued” the delinquents “out of his mouth.” During this period of a century and a half, the state of things exhibited in the New Testament grew worse and worse; and it may be generally remarked, that the same opposition to the Name of the Spirit, termed by historians “the Deity of Christ or his manhood,” and the same insidious methods of depreciating or abusing “the word of the kingdom,” or “the word of the patient waiting for Christ,” continued in all this period, which had begun in the time of the apostles, with this difference, that they were now multiplied, varied, complicated, and refined by endless subtleties and fancies, in which the poverty of taste and genius, so common in a period when letters are declining, discovers itself no less than the christian doctrine. Nevertheless, in the midst of this wide-spread and general corruption of faith and practice, the faithful still kept themselves separate and distinct, and preserved their garments from defilement.
The elevation of Decius to supreme power was fatal to multitudes of professing christians, who were unable to stand the trial of their principles; and in their fall proved themselves to be of the synagogue of the Satan, and not Jews, but liars. The enmity of Decius to his predecessor Philip, (whom Eusebius styles a christian, although a murderer and profligate, who had not obeyed the truth,) conspired with his pagan prejudices to bring on the most dreadful persecution christianity had yet experienced. The Hour of the Trial had arrived, and it was evident to its contemporaries, that nothing less than the extermination of the christian name was intended. “The chronology,” says Milner, “is here remarkably embarrassed.” He therefore conjectures that the period extended to A. D. 260. The persecution raged with astonishing fury, beyond the example of former persecutions, both in the East and West, or, in the words of the Spirit, επι της οικουμενης ὅλης, upon the whole habitable. In a treatise by Cyprian concerning “The Lapsed,” there is an affecting account of the declension from christianity, which had taken place before his conversion in A. D. 246, and which moved the Deity to chastise the body. “If the cause of our miseries,” says he, “be investigated, the cure of the wound may be found. The Lord would have his family to be TRIED. And because long peace had corrupted the discipline divinely revealed to us, the heavenly chastisement hath raised up our faith, which had lain almost dormant; and when, by our sins, we had deserved to suffer still more, the merciful Lord so p. 382 moderated all things, that the whole scene rather deserves the name of A TRIAL than a persecution”—a πειρασμος rather than a θλιψις, a distinction which obtains in Rev. ii. 10, and ch. iii. 10.
Cyprian then proceeds to narrate the manifest cause of this trial that was to try, or put the professions of the christians of previous peaceable and prosperous times to the proof. “Each,” says he, “had been bent on improving his patrimony; and had forgotten what believers had done under the apostles, and what they ought always to do. They were brooding over the arts of amassing wealth. The pastors and their deacons each forgot their duty. Works of mercy were neglected, and discipline was at the lowest ebb. Luxury and effeminacy prevailed. Meretricious arts in dress were cultivated. Fraud and deceit were practiced among brethren. Christians could unite themselves in matrimony with unbelievers; and could swear, not only without reverence, but even without veracity. With haughty asperity they despised their ecclesiastical superiors; they railed against each other with outrageous acrimony, and conducted quarrels with determined malice. Even many bishops, who ought to be guides and patterns to the rest, neglecting the peculiar duties of their stations, gave themselves up to secular pursuits. They deserted their places of residence and their flocks. They travelled through distant provinces in quest of pleasure and gain; gave no assistance to the needy brethren, but were insatiable in their thirst for money. They possessed estates by fraud, and multiplied usury. What have we not deserved to suffer for such conduct? The Divine Word hath foretold us what we might expect, saying, ‘If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, I will visit their offences with the rod, and their sin with scourges.’ These things had been denounced and foretold, but in vain: our sins had brought our affairs to that pass, that because we had despised the Lord’s directions, we were obliged to undergo a correction of our multiplied evils and a trial of our faith by severe remedies.”
Even Origen, as worldly a professor of the faith as any of his day, intimates that the long peace which the body—with only the short interruption of Maximin’s persecution—had enjoyed, was followed by a great degree of lukewarmness and even of much religious indecorum. “Several,” says he, “come to church only on solemn festivals; and then not so much for instruction as diversion. Some go out again as soon as they have heard the lecture, without conferring or asking the pastors any questions; others stay not till the lecture is ended; and others hear not so much as a single word, but entertain themselves in a corner of the church.” But, “like priest like people.” These were what their leaders had made them; for it is “the leaders of the people p. 383 that cause them to err.” The ability faithfully to dispense the truth had become rare, as well as the taste for such employment; and Origen complains of the ambitious and haughty manners of pastors, and of the improper steps which some took to obtain preferment.
During the trial frequent communications passed between the christians in Rome and Carthage to which Cyprian belonged. The Roman brethren represent the conflict as very important, and one which God had now permitted for the trial of his servants. They said, it was the express purpose of God to manifest both to angels and men, that the conqueror shall be crowned, and the conquered, that is, the faithless apostate, be self-condemned. This was doubtless an allusion to the testimony in the letters to Smyrna and Philadelphia; in the former of which, it is written, “Be faithful until death, and I will give thee the coronal wreath of the life;” and in the latter, “Hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy coronal wreath,” στεφανον, or “crown.” In speaking of the effects of the trial, they say, “Behold, almost the whole world (or habitable) is laid waste: fragments of the fallen lie in every place. With one and the same counsel, with unanimous prayers and tears, let us—who seem hitherto to have escaped the ruins of this visitation, as well as those who have not stood entirely faithful during the persecution, entreat the Divine Majesty, and beg peace, in the name of the whole church.”
“The management of this persecution,” says Milner, “seems to have been the whole employment of the magistrates. Swords, wild beasts, pits, red hot chains, wheels for stretching human bodies, and talons of iron to tear them; these were at this time the instruments of pagan vengeance. Malice and covetousness in informing against christians were eagerly and powerfully set to work during this horrible reign: and the genius of men was never known to have had more of employment in aiding the savageness of the heart. Life was prolonged in torture, in order that impatience in suffering might effect at length, what surprise and terror could not.” It was not a local or intermitting, but an universal and constant persecution. The lightning of the Decian rage refined and cleared the whole christian atmosphere. No doubt, the effects were salutary in preventing the extinction of the truth, which was rapidly expiring. The storm proved fatal to many who could not stand the trial, but apostatized; and christianity was in that way, cleared of many false friends; who, in the time of peace, said “they were Jews, but were not, and did lie; but were of the synagogue of the Satan.”
p. 3844. “The Patient Waiting”
The ground of escape from “the hour of trial,” which was to be so terrible, was stated to be “the keeping of the word of the patient waiting for the Spirit.” The importance of this word may be estimated by the severity of the chastisement for its neglect. The coming of the Spirit-Man is the thing waited for; and the teaching which creates this expectation is “the word of the patient waiting for.” Wherever the truth was received as the result of divine teaching, the earnest and joyous expectation of the return of the glorified Jesus became a prime article of faith. This appears from many places in the New Testament. When Paul went to Thessalonica he proclaimed the royalty of Jesus, and his return to rule the whole habitable—that there is another King than Cæsar, even Jesus. Many of Cæsar’s subjects believed him; and, in consequence, threw away their idols, and waited for his coming. In writing to these in after years, Paul said, “Ye turned to the Deity from the idols to serve a living and true Deity; and to wait for his Son from the heavens, whom He raised from among the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.” This became to them a matter of hope. They waited for it, and were taught to do so with patience and endurance. It is, therefore, termed “the patient waiting of the hope of our Lord Jesus Anointed,” in 1 Thess. i. 3. In both these epistles the apocalypse of Jesus occupies a prominent place. It is expressly mentioned at the end of all the chapters of the first with many important accompaniments; and, in 2 Epist. iii. 5, he says, “the Lord direct your hearts into the love of the Deity, and into the patient waiting for the Anointed.” They had become impatient, supposing that the day of his appearing was at hand. But Paul corrected this error by telling them that it would not come to pass until the consummation of an Apostasy, which would be perfected under the Man of Sin: and that, when this power should be fully matured, then the Lord Jesus would be apocalypsed to destroy it, and be glorified in his saints. All who are “taught of God” understand this, and earnestly desire the event; because they know that there is no salvation till He appears. The promises are to those who love his appearing. Paul teaches this distinctly. “There is laid up,” says he, “a coronal wreath of righteousness for all them who love his appearing;” and in another place he says, “to them who look for him he shall appear a second time without sin for salvation”—Heb. ix. 28. Only those who are watching and prepared will share in this salvation.
p. 3855. “I Come Quickly”
“Behold, I come, ταχυ, quickly,” or soon. This does not refer to the “coming in clouds” of ch. i. 7; but to the coming to execute the threatening of the previous verse. “I, the Spirit-man, will come soon to bring the hour of trial upon the whole habitable.” In ch. ii. 5, he threatened to come quickly to the Star-Angel of Ephesus, if they did not resume their original position, and take from them the gifts, by which their darkness would become complete. Nor is it the coming quickly, though it may be typical of it, indicated in Rev. xxii. 12. This has reference to our future, and not to a past time. I conclude thus, because in this text the time of the coming is marked by the bringing of the reward, and the giving every man according to his works. Then will be the time for the prostration of all the Satanists and spurious Jews at the feet of the Philadelphians. They will then know that these are the beloved whom they have long despised and abused. If it be a quick, or soon, coming at the fall of Babylon the Great, it was certainly a quick coming at “the hour of trial” in A. D. 248.
The Philadelphians were exhorted to “hold fast what they had.” They had the word of the kingdom and name. They were to hold fast to this, or, if they did not, they would lose their crown. Every reader can understand this; and he may easily know if he have any claim upon this crown, by examining himself and seeing if he be in the faith. If he be ignorant of the doctrine of the kingdom and name, he has nothing worth holding on to; and, though he may know all mysteries, if he have not been immersed into Christ, he is not in the faith. This is the condition of “the religious world” at this day. In the time of the Philadelphian Star-Angel the christian community, the religious world of that day, had the word of the patient waiting for the Spirit-Man; and was then in a position to hold fast or let go. Many now have a traditional idea that Christ will come again; but of “the word,” which teaches how to wait, and how to be accepted of him as holy, unblameable, and without rebuke at his appearing, the clergy and their peoples have not the least conception. They can not therefore “hold fast what the Angel in Philadelphia had;” and consequently have no right or title to the coronal.
p. 3866. Coronal Wreath
In the English Version, στεφανος is rendered “crown.” There are two words in the Apocalypse so rendered,—διαδημα and στεφανος. The latter is used in Mat. xxvii. 29, “they platted a crown of thorns;” and in 1 Cor. ix. 25, “to obtain a corruptible crown;” and in 1 Pet. v. 4, “a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” In the Apocalypse, when unassociated with other words, it signifies a garland, chaplet, or wreath, encircling the head from the crown to the back thereof at its junction with the neck. Such was the stephanos, or coronal wreath, with which the victorious athletæ, or combatants, in the public games of antiquity were decorated. These combatants were runners, wrestlers, and pugilists, who agonized, or contended earnestly, for the glory, honor, and recompense of victory. Paul alludes to them in saying, “Know ye not that they who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible coronal wreath; but we an incorruptible.”
Elliott, in his Horæ Apocalypticæ, has the following remarks upon the stephanos. “By the imperator or emperor, up to the time of Augustus, was meant, as is well known, simply the victorious Roman general, saluted with that title by his soldiers on the field of battle, and with the triumph and its coveted honors and insignia following. Now, though with Augustus and his successors the most absolute monarchical power attached to their emperorship, yet it was their policy to veil it under the old military or imperial badges. Hence their public insignia (of which the mock robing and crowning of Jesus by the Roman soldiery is an affecting remembrancer) were still the laurel crown and purple robe. The assumption of the diadem, or broad white fillet set with pearls, viewed as it was by the Romans as a badge of oriental despotism, and of the servitude of subject vassals, these emperors carefully shunned. The remembrance long remained with them of the feelings exhibited by the Roman people on its being offered by Antony to their great ancestor, Julius Cæsar; insomuch that it was considered an act of madness on the part of Caligula (and the act was quite isolated) to attempt to assume it. Abundant memorials exist to show that all through the time to which the first Seal refers, the crown remained the badge of Roman emperors, the diadem of barbarous kings. In fact, not till about the time of Diocletian, near 200 years after John’s banishment to Patmos, was the diadem adopted by Roman emperors: the innovation being accompanied both with the other insignia, p. 387 and even the adoration too, attendant on eastern royalty. The change constituted an epoch in Roman history; and one markedly noticed, as will afterwards appear, in the Apocalypse. Thus, then, about Diocletian’s time, and thenceforward, but not till then, the diadem was the imperial badge;—for a century or more conjointly with the laurel, then I believe exclusively. So that whereas, with reference to such a period as the close of the fourth century, it would have been an impropriety, and with reference to the sixth an anachronism, to represent the stephanos, or laurel crown, as a badge of empire on an imperial or royal head,—just as much, and indeed more, it would have been an anachronism to represent a Roman emperor of the two and a half first centuries with a diadem”—Vol. i. p. 126.
In the Apocalypse the diadem is peculiar to the Seven-Headed Draggon and the Ten Horns of the Beast. It is true, that in Rev. xix. 12, “many diadems” are represented on the head of the Spirit-Man; but then these are the diadems which he wrests from the Ten Horns when he conquers them, and takes possession of their kingdoms.
The stephanos was a very appropriate device for association with life, honor, glory, rejoicing, and righteousness. It was constructed of the laurel, which is evergreen, and therefore emblematic of the Aion-Life which is perennial; still when plucked from the living tree it is corruptible, and fades away. So with the believer; as long as he holds fast to what he has, retains his hold upon Christ, by His dwelling in his heart by faith in the word of the patient waiting for him, and not denying his name; Christ, who is the Wisdom of the Deity, is to him a living and unfading tree; and he, as a leaf thereof, does not wither: but if, having received “the word, he does not hold it fast, or denies the name of the Spirit-Man, he is as a leaf plucked from its parent stem; he fades, and another has snatched from him his stephanos, which nought enriches the persecutor, and makes him that loses it poor indeed. Hence, the high importance of the exhortation to the Philadelphian saints, “Hold fast what thou hast that no one may have seized upon thy coronal wreath.”
In “the Hour of Trial” there were many examples of this seizure of the stephanos. The following will afford an illustration of others. There were at Antioch a presbyter and an unofficial member of the ecclesia, the former named Sapricius, the latter Nicephorus, who, through some misunderstanding, after a remarkable intimacy, became so completely estranged, that they would not even salute each other in the street. Nicephorus after a time relented, begged forgiveness of his fault, and took repeated measures to procure reconciliation, but in vain. He even went to the house of Sapricius, and throwing himself at p. 388 his feet, entreated his forgiveness for the Lord’s sake; but the presbyter continued obstinate.
In this situation of things “the Hour of Trial” came suddenly upon them. The Spirit-Man had come, as he had forewarned them. Sapricius was carried before the governor, and ordered to sacrifice to the gods in obedience to the edict of the emperors. “We christians,” replied Sapricius, “acknowledge for our king Jesus Christ, who is the true God, and the Creator of heaven and earth. Perish idols, which can do neither good nor harm?” The Prefect tormented him a long time, and then commanded that he should be beheaded. Nicephorus hearing this, ran up to him as he was led to execution, and renewed in vain the same supplications. The executioners derided his humility as perfect folly. But he persevered, and attended Sapricius to the place of execution. There he said further, “It is written, Ask and it shall be given you.” But not even this appeal to the word, so suitable to Sapricius’ own circumstances, could affect his obstinate and unforgiving temper.
Sapricius, however, suddenly recanted, and promised to sacrifice to the idols. Nicephorus amazed, exhorted him to the contrary; but in vain. He then said to the executioners, “I believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ whom he hath renounced.” The officers returned to give an account to the governor, who ordered Nicephorus to be beheaded; who may be said to have seized the coronal Sapricius had thrown away.
When the combatants in the public games obtained the coronal evergreen, it was because they had contended according to the regulations, which justified the awarding of the crown to the victor. It was therefore a coronal of justification. He was in a state of right; and therefore entitled to all the honor, glory, and rejoicing due to successful combatants. The laurel wreath was therefore a crown of righteousness, a crown of glory and honor, and a crown of rejoicing, in a gymnastic sense. Upon the principle of analogy, then, the Spirit has chosen the stephanos in preference to the diadem, as the symbol of the glory, honor, rejoicing, and incorruptible life, he has promised to those who are found in that state of right—of moral right—he has organized, and defined in “the word.” They who come up to the regulations he has ordained in this, are righteous; and being thereby justified, when the day of coronation arrives, “glory, honor, incorruptibility, and life” will be to the resurrected righteous, “a crown or στεφανος, that fadeth not away. The diadem is inherited; the stephanos is the prize of “him that overcomes.”
But, though the stephanos of the public games was of laurel, still p. 389 they would fade. Hence, the stephanos in its literality is not introduced into the apocalypse. It stands there analogically, as something that encircles and is bestowed upon victors, but with the material changed. Thus, in Rev. iv. 4, John sees the twenty-four presbyters with golden stephans upon their heads, which they cast before the throne, indicating thereby that “the glory, honor, and power” represented by the stephans, are derived from the Lord who sits thereon. They are of gold, because they are acquired by faith—by that faith which is symbolized by fine gold, as the most precious of metals. The most precious metal, in other words, is the emblem of the most precious attribute of a christian. Hence, a tried faith is likened by Peter to gold tried with fire. This is the analogy which he expresses, saying to certain under persecution, “Ye are in heaviness through manifold trials; that the putting to the proof of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory in an apocalypse of Jesus Anointed”—1 Ep. i. 7. Faith like fine gold is a “precious faith,” embracing “exceeding great and precious promises;” by faith in which when duly appreciated, “THE DIVINE NATURE” is created and cherished in the hearts of men. To such, the apostle addresses himself, saying, “To them who have obtained like precious faith with us in the righteousness of the Deity, even of our Saviour Jesus Anointed; grace to you and peace be multiplied in the exact knowledge of the Deity, even of Jesus our Lord.” How little faith must there be in the world if the faith of the apostles is to be regarded as the standard! The faith extant is not comparable to theirs in kind nor in degree; consequently, but few of this generation will enter into the symbol of the twenty-four wearing “golden stephans upon their heads.”
“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the stephanos of life.” Such was the promise to the Smyrneans—a promise equivalent to that to the Philadelphians. To be faithful unto death is to hold fast the word of the patient waiting for Christ, and not to deny his name; and to receive the stephan of life is to rise from the dead and to live forever.
7. “A Pillar in the Temple.”
After exhorting the faithful to hold fast the gospel of the kingdom and name, the Spirit-Man proceeds to assure them of reward. In addressing the victor who shall have overcome in the public games which he patronizes and conducts, the Spirit saith, “I will make the victor A PILLAR in the Temple of my Deity.” In thus saying, “pillar” p. 390 evidently is representative of a saved person. Therefore to make such a pillar in a temple of Deity is to make him an integral part thereof; and for a saint to be part of the temple, indicates that the temple itself is composed of persons. Now a temple is a dwelling; not a common dwelling, but a habitation of Deity. A temple composed of the saints is a habitation of Deity, which the Lord pitches and not man.
Upon this principle the pillars and the house, temple, dwelling, or habitation, become identical and inseparable. But obvious as this may be to the enlightened, we propose to make it equally so to others; and to unfold the significancy and beauty of the phrase in the remarks which follow.
The idea of a pillar being a house of Deity is traceable to the conception of Jacob, who, doubtless, initiated it under the inspiration of Deity. The history of its origination is told in Gen. xxviii, as follows. Isaac called Jacob into his presence, and told him to go to Padanaram, and select for himself a wife there, from Laban’s daughters. On his departure he blessed him saying, “AIL-Shaddai bless thee, and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy Seed WITH THEE; that thou mayest inherit the land, wherein thou art a stranger, which ELOHIM gave to Abraham.”
On his way thither, Jacob came to a certain place where he passed the night, making his pillow of the stones. While asleep, the vision of the Ladder appeared to him. This ladder seemed to connect the earth and heaven; and by it ascended and descended upon him angels, or messengers of ELOHIM. Above the ladder stood YAHWEH, known to Jacob by the name AIL-Shaddai, who said to him, “I am YAHWEH Elohim of Abraham thy father, and ELOHIM of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in thee, and in thy Seed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places where thou goest, and I will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done what I have spoken to thee of.”
The gospel of the kingdom having been thus announced to Jacob, as it had been before to Abraham, (Gal. iii. 8,) he awoke, and under the vivid impression of what he had seen and heard, took the Stone upon which his head rested, and set it up for a pillar—a monumental pillar—and poured oil upon the top of it. This was the nearest approach he could make to the matter of the vision. The stone resting upon the earth and pointing upwards might represent the ladder; and the oil p. 391 poured on the top of it, the Spirit, or Deity, who stood above it. Thus, the Stone was converted into a pillar or monument, which, to the mind of Jacob, would suggest the promise he had heard in his dream. His recollection of this promise would be the monumental inscription of this pillar of Stone.
But when he awoke in a typical resurrection, he exclaimed, “Verily, Yahweh is in this place, and I knew not;” and he was afraid, and said, “How awful is this place! This is nothing else but a house of Elohim, and this a gate of the heavens!” Hence, that this idea might be perpetuated, he said, “Yahweh shall be to me for Elohim, and this Stone which I have set for a pillar shall be a House of Elohim.”
Jacob’s stone pillar, then, was typical of a House of Elohim to be set up after he awakes from his sleep of centuries. When he awakes, he will find himself in an awful time and place, the gate of heaven opened, and the house of Elohim in manifestation, but he, nevertheless, without dismay. What he saw in vision he will then see in fact—“Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man”—John i. 51.
But there is a sense in which Jacob’s pillar of the stone exists as a house of Elohim even now, and in intimate connection with the house he will see when he awakes from his present know-nothing state. Paul presents to us this sense in the saying, that “a House of Deity is an ecclesia of living Deity, a PILLAR and material habitation, (εδραιωμα from εδρα, a habitation of gods,) of the truth”—1 Tim. ii. 15. This pillar and habitation is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Anointed being chief-corner”—Eph. ii. 20. As a monumental pillar, the inscription upon it is “the exceeding great and precious promises” believed by each saint, or “living stone,” of which the pillar is composed—“promises” concerning the kingdom and name made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as narrated by Moses. This pillar was anointed on the top of it on the Day of Pentecost, when the spirit was poured upon the apostles. That anointing was perpetuated in “the testimony for Jesus” which has reached even to us, and with which every true believer is anointed. An ecclesia, however, is not only a pillar inscribed with the truth, but is a hedraiōma of the truth. It is a material thing made up of “gods,” as David styles them, or of “children of Deity,” according to 1 John iii. 2; Psal. lxxxii. 6. These are anointed with the truth, and therefore they are a god-habitation, or hedraioma of the truth.
In regard to this word ἕδραιωμα, it may be remarked here, that it occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, nor in any classical author. The word is derived from ἕδρα, hedra, which signifies “a seat, habitation, p. 392 especially of gods, a temple, altar, &c.” Hence, the expressiveness of the word, and its peculiar and exclusive application to a habitation of the truth constituted of gods, or children of Deity, who are, as represented in the Apocalypse, “the Altar,” “the temple,” “the Holy City,” or, as Paul expresses it, “an habitation of Deity by spirit—Eph. ii. 22.
The ecclesia in the aggregate is the Pillar of the Stone to be placed in Zion, and a hedraioma, or House of Elohim, as Jacob termed the type he set up at Bethel. But while the saints collectively are an Elohal Pillar and House of the truth, this house also contains two classes of pillars, and many individual pillars in each class. This is seen in type and antitype. Typically, the two classes are represented in the Two Brazen Pillars in the Porch of Solomon’s temple, the one on the right hand being named Jachin, and that on the left, Boaz. These names were significative of the things represented by the pillars, which were of brass, eighteen cubits, or about thirty-two feet, in the shaft, which was twenty-one feet girth, and surmounted with a chapiter nine feet high. Here were loftiness and strength. The chapiters were ornamented with nets of checker-work, wreaths or stephans, of chain-work, pomegranates, and lily work, all of which were representative of things pertaining to the pillars. As a whole, they were styled יכין, yahkin, and בעז, boaz, or in plain English, He shall establish by strong ones.
In Canticles, Solomon, who had much to do with lily work and pomegranates, and fragrant and choice woods, in the building of the temple, makes the Bridegroom term the Bride “the Lily;” and speaking of herself, she says, “I am his, feeding among lilies;” and, “a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley.” And in another part of this Song of Songs, the bridegroom says of the saints forming collectively the Bride, “A garden enclosed is my sister spouse; a spring locked up, a fountain sealed. Thy shoots are plants of Paradise, pomegranates with delicious fruits.” Moses styles Palestine “a land of pomegranates,” so that they came to be used as a similitude for those who shall inherit the land. They therefore constituted the hem of the typical robe of Aaron, being of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and alternating with golden bells. These plants of Paradise typifying the two classes of saints from Israel and the Gentiles, are concretely the עז, ōz, or “strong ones, by whom HE, Yahweh, will establish” the kingdom of David. They are, therefore, Yahkin and Boaz, the brazen pillars of the porch.
But while these pillars of fine brass represented “the Feet” of the Eternal Spirit, which in their progress are as “pillars of fire” glowing in a furnace, (Rev. i. 15; x. 1; Ezek. xliii. 7,) there are other representative pillars, which typified the same agents in a different position.
p. 393 Within the tabernacle were “four pillars” upon which was suspended the Veil inwrought with Cherubim—Exod. xxvi. 32. These pillars were of wood overlaid with gold. Brass pertained to the Porch and Court of the Priests; Gold to the Holy and Most Holy compartments of the tabernacle. These four cherubic-veil pillars answer to the Four Living Ones of Rev. iv. and v. These, who are the redeemed, have entered the temple, “the smoke from the glory and power of the Deity” having altogether passed away—Rev. xv. 8. To be “a pillar in the dwelling of the Deity,” is to be a constituent of these four cherubic-veil pillars, and an element of Jachin and Boaz, the diversity of metals having reference not to different classes of saints, but to the same individuals in different states. As brass, they are glowing in the furnace of divine wrath, “executing vengeance upon the nations and punishments upon the peoples; binding their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron;” in short, “executing upon them the judgment written,” in the time appointed for them to possess themselves of the kingdom under the whole heaven—Psal. cxlix. 7; Dan. vii.; as brass, they are “standing upon the sea of glass mingled with fire,” and treading down the wicked as ashes under the soles of their feet—Rev. xv. 1; Mal. iv. 3; but as gold, they stand upon the sea, sounding their harps to the song of the victory they have achieved over the kingdoms and empires of the world.
The saints in the execution of judgment in the approaching “hour of judgment,” are also typified by the sixty pillars of brass, pertaining to the court of the tabernacle—Exod. xxvii. 9-17. This dwelling in Cant. iii. 7, “is styled “His litter which is for Solomon.” It is seen “ascending out of the wilderness as pillars of smoke.” The Bride asks “Who is this?” Her attendants reply that it is “His litter which is for Solomon himself. Sixty valiant men surround it, the stoutest heroes of Israel; every one of them grasping a sword, being expert in war; the Commander his sword upon his thigh without fear in nights.” This scene is introduced in Rev. xix. 14. Here the Commander and his sixty heroes, or brazen pillars, are in battle array, and prepared to smite the nations, and to tread the winepress, without fear or apprehension of defeat.
In Exod. xxiv. 4, the Twelve Tribes of Israel are typified by twelve pillars surrounding the altar. Jeremiah was made “a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. This represented an antagonism between him and the state; but as he was likened to iron and brass, he was thereby shown to be unconquerable. It is therefore added, “and p. 394 they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, saith Yahweh, to deliver thee”—ch. i. 18, 19. James, Peter and John were also pillars in the hedraioma, being with the rest, as the twelve pillars of Moses around the altar, and the future rulers of the pillar-tribes—Gal. ii. 9; Matt. xix. 28.
From these premises, then, we perceive quite an array of pillars pertaining to the house, or kingdom, of Elohim. They are Wisdom’s pillars. They are being “hewn out.” The work of hewing is not yet complete; but when the work is finished, and the pillars are all set up, or established, in their proper places, they will then constitute “her Seven Pillars.” It will then be said that “Wisdom hath builded her house, and she hath hewn out her seven pillars”—Prov. ix. i. The wisdom that was with Yahweh “before the earth was;” and called by John “the Word that was Deity.” Wisdom’s house is the house of the Deity, who is “the builder of all things,” commonly styled “the kingdom of God.” Those who are to possess this are the “pillars of the earth,” which in Ps. lxxv. 4, the Spirit in Asaph says, “I have established.” This testimony is worthy of particular attention in connection with the promise to the Philadelphians. “When I take the congregation I, by righteous ones, מישׁרים maisharim, will judge. The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved; I have fixed its pillars.” In this we are pointed to the time when “the Great Congregation” of Israel, consisting of its Twelve Pillars, shall be taken possession of by the Deity, who says, he will judge “by righteous ones;” that is, by Messiah and his Brethren, the Saints, who then constitute the Deity in corporeal manifestation—“pillars in the Temple of my Deity.” The idea of the Deity ruling the habitable in or by others was announced by Paul to the Athenian Areopagus. He called upon the members of this body to abandon the idols and embrace the true Deity, “because He had appointed a Day (of a thousand years) in which he will rule the habitable in justice in a man whom he hath ordained, having offered assurance to all, having raised him from among the dead.” Deity in Man the future ruler of the nations; and that man the Spirit-Man of Multitude, symbolized in Rev. i. 13. This is a grand idea—a multitudinous Spirit-Man, every individual member of which will have been either raised from among the dead like Jesus; or transformed, like Enoch and Elijah. This is the “One Body the Ecclesia,” which is the pillar-house of Elohim; the Christ. This is the Seed of Abraham, or the Christ, that rules the world for a thousand years—a Christ, or Anointed Body, consisting of Jesus and the Saints, every one of whom is “a pillar;” and collectively, “the temple of Deity” from which “he shall not at all go away out more.”
p. 395 But before this post-resurrectional state can be attained, “the earth and all its inhabitants” must be “dissolved.” Its constitution, as symbolized by the beasts of Daniel and John, must be abolished. This is the work of Jachin and Boaz in the Porch, which, as we have seen, typify omnipotence in the saints in the execution of judgment. When they shall have become “victors,” they will pass from the brazen into the golden state. They will then be fixed, or established, as the golden pillars of the earth under its millennial constitution. Once a pillar in the house of wisdom in the golden state, he will “not at all go away out more.” To perceive the force of these words we must remember that “the Temple of Deity” exists in two states—the present, and the future. Paul, addressing the saints in Corinth, who were as we are, of the present, or flesh and blood, state, says to them, “Ye are a building of Deity—a temple of Deity, and the spirit of the Deity dwells in you.” But they have all “gone away out” of “the tabernacle in which they groaned being burdened”—2 Cor. v. 4: “the earthly house of the tabernacle,” formerly the temple of Deity in Corinth, is all “dissolved;” and its constituents are all sleeping in the dust of the earth unconscious of every thing. There they lie awaiting the action of the power which shall raise them from the dead; and constitute them “a building, a house not made with hands, an AION-HOUSE in the heavens.” When they shall become pillars in this house where they will continue fixed. Death will affect them no more, and consequently, being then immortal they will “not at all go away out more”—εξω οὐ μη εξελθη ετι.
8. My New Name
The Deity speaking of “the Victor” says, “I will make him a pillar in the temple of my Deity * * * I will write upon him the NAME of my Deity, and the Name of the City of my Deity, the New Jerusalem, which descendeth out of the heaven from my Deity, even my New Name.” In this, the temple, name, and city are all affirmed of “My Deity.” The reason of this is because of the principle laid down in the words, εἰς Θεος ο πατηρ εσπ, εξ οὐ τα παντα, και ημεις εἰς αυτον “there is One Deity the Father out of whom are all things, and we for him.” Does, then, the Deity desire a temple, a Name, or a city upon the earth? Doth he desire all these things? Then “out of” himself they must all proceed; for He is “the Father,” or fountain and origin of all existences. When, therefore, he speaks of a temple, name, and city elaborated out of his spirit, He styles them emanations “of my Deity;” as if he were to say, the temple, name, and p. 396 city are emanations from, and manifestations of, my divine power, and glory. I, the Father, desire to dwell among men; but I will not dwell in a temple or house built by men; I will dwell in a habitation every stone and pillar of which shall be Deity in immortal flesh. Such is Paul’s teaching in 2 Cor. vi. 16, saying, “Ye are a temple of a living Deity, as the Deity hath said, ‘I will dwell in them and will walk, and will be of them Deity;” and this temple of Deity in all its parts shall be “swallowed up of life”—2 Epist. v. 4—a temple of everliving stones.
But the manifestation of the Deity is not merely for habitation purposes, but for glory and dominion. This is indicated by “the Name,” and “the Name of the City,” or “New Name.” Thus it is written in Psal. lxxix. 9, “Help us, O Elohim of our salvation, in the matter of the Glory of thy Name, and deliver us: and cover over our sins for the purpose of thy Name.” Moses styles it “the glorious and fearful Name, YAHWEH ELOHEKHAH”—Deut. xxviii. 58; concerning which David says in Psal. lxxii. 19, “Blessed be YAHWEH Elohim, the Elohim of Israel * * * and blessed be the Name of his Glory for Olahm; yea, all the earth shall be filled with his glory.”
The glory of the Deity is intellectual, moral, and physical, all of which is covered by his name, which expresses what he really is. Thus “His name is Jealous;” that is, “He is jealous;” “His name is holy;” that is, “He is holy;” and “His name is YAHWEH Tzavāoth;” that is, He who spoke to Jeremiah is He who shall be of armies, which is the meaning of the Name. Thus, “the Name of the Deity” in scripture signifies every thing that He is as revealed therein. When Moses said, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory?”—it was replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim YAHWEH before thee by Name. When we read the proclamation, we therefore read the name or character, of the Deity—Exod. xxxiv. 6. He knows all things, and there is nothing too hard for him to do. This is what he is abstractly and essentially. As he is, so he has always been from everlasting, and will be without end.
But will he be thus abstract forever? This is the question, and one which can only be answered from the scriptures. This answer is in the negative, and finds a very pointed illustration in Jer. xiii. 11. In the parable of the girdle buried by Euphrates, the Spirit says, “For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith YAHWEH; that they might be unto me for a people, and FOR A NAME, and for a praise, and for a glory; but they would not hear.” Now the argument contained in this testimony is, that if Israel and p. 397 Judah had hearkened to Yahweh, they would have been to him “for a Name.” But they would not hear; so they became like the girdle when dug up—a name good for nothing. In consequence of this national worthlessness, Isaiah predicted, that “Adonai Yahweh should slay them, and for his servants proclaim another name; that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in ELOHIM of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by ELOHIM of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes”—Isai. lxv. 15.
Here we have the idea presented of the whole Hebrew nation being a name of the Deity. But through the iniquity and falsehood of the tribes the idea was not perfected. The development of the idea was placed in abeyance. He had brought them out of Egypt under Moses “to make for himself a Name of Olahm;” he led them as a horse in the wilderness, “to make himself a Name of Honor;” and to no other people was the name proclaimed: but, although they were called gods, and all of them Sons of the Most High, yet they were not “Elohim of truth;” therefore the Spirit in David said, “Surely as Adam ye shall die; and as one of the princes ye shall fall:” but to his faithful and truth-loving servants, he saith, “Arise, O Elohim, judge the earth; for thou shalt inherit among all the nations”—Ps. lxxxii. 6; Isai. lxiii. 12-19.
But though Israel and Judah under the law judged themselves unworthy of having the Name of the Deity written upon them, YAHWEH did not abandon his purpose. “Behold, saith he, I will bring Jerusalem health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah, and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them as at the first;”—Jer. xxxiii. 6. In performing this work he also says, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be to them for Elohim, and they shall be to me for a people. * * * And they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith YAHWEH; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”—ch. xxxi. 33.
When this is accomplished, they will be a truthful and righteous nation, and filled with the spirit as the apostles were of old. Thus anointed, they will be intelligent and wise, and the mightiest of the nations of the earth. The Hebrew nation has never attained to so high a position as this yet; nevertheless, it is the destiny that awaits their repentance, and acknowledgment of Jesus Anointed, as their Lord and King.
But “another name” was to be proclaimed to Israel and Judah than p. 398 any they were acquainted with in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah. These both prophesied concerning it. The former says of the child born and son given, “He shall call his name Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty Power, Father of Futurity, Prince of Peace * * * upon the throne of David:” and the latter says of him, “the Great, the Mighty Power, YAHWEH of armies, his Name”—ch. xxxii. 18; and in chap. xxiii. 5, says furthermore concerning it, “Behold, the days come, saith YAHWEH, that I will cause to rise up unto David a righteous branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and he shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this his Name which he shall call him, YAHWEH-TZIDKAINU—He shall be our righteousness.”
This is certainly a name of glory, honor, power, dominion, wisdom, and holiness. It is the name for the Olahm emanating from Deity; who shall bear it? Shall it be borne wholly and solely by Jesus; or shall a multitude share it with him? We, who have confessed that he is Lord to the glory of the Divine Father, rejoice that he hath already received it in part, which is an earnest of the whole. The name of the Deity hath been written upon him; for he hath received a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow: the name of the New Jerusalem, which is his new name, has also been inscribed upon him; for he is the glory, the light, the wall, and the temple thereof. The gospel of the kingdom was preached to Israel and the nations, that by faith in it a people might be separated from them for this name. All who accept it are baptized into this name and for it. All such are in this name, and anxiously looking forward to the time when the “New Name of the Deity” will be written upon them by the resurrection-power of the Father. What Jesus now is they will become; for they are joint-heirs with him of all he inherits. He is Deity manifested in flesh; and so when those who are now in the name shall rise from among the dead, and put on incorruption, they also will be the Deity manifested in immortal flesh—the “New Name” of glory, honor, incorruptibility, life, and power, will be written or engraved into their new nature—incarnate focalizations of spirit-emanation from the substance of the Eternal Father. “I, YAHWEH, will be to Israel and Judah for Elohim.” The resurrected saints are these Elohim, who arise to judge the earth; and to rule Israel when they become a righteous and truth-loving people. They are the Elohim of Truth—elohaiamen—in whom Israelites will bless themselves in the earth; to whom—that is, to Israel and their Elohim—the name of Israel, under the law and to this present, comparable to Jeremiah’s good-for-nothing girdle, will be a by-word and a curse.
p. 3999. The Name of the City Written
To write the Name of the City of the Deity upon one already inscribed with the Name of the Deity, is indicative of all such constituting a Body Politic—a Divine Municipality. It is called “New Jerusalem” in contradistinction to the Old Jerusalem under the Mosaic constitution, “in bondage with her children.” The latter was the mother of those whose name was good for nothing, but the former is the mother of all who believe the promises concerning the glorious things spoken of her approaching future. At present she is barren and desolate, having no children, nevertheless, this same shall break forth and cry, and become ἡ ανω Ἰερουσαλημ, the higher Jerusalem, “the free city,” which is the mother city, or metropolis, of the kingdom and dominion of the Millennial Aion. Jerusalem under Solomon the Second will be “higher,” or more exalted, than Jerusalem under Solomon the First, because the Municipality—THE INCORPORATE DEITY—will be her glory. In the time of Solomon her state and municipal corporations were mortal men, and the glory of the Deity was confined to the temple between the cherubim; but in the coming reign, the administration from the King to the least in the kingdom, will be immortal and greater than all that are born of women, and of such excellency in the estimation of Deity as to be compared to “gold and precious stones”—Gal. iv; Rev. xxi.
But in the writing before us, it is said to “descend out of the heaven from the Deity.” The reason of this is, because He in whom the fulness dwells is there, and the city will not be manifested until he descends. The Holy City consisting of the saints, is at present trodden under foot of the Gentiles, and will so continue to be until the end of the forty and two months of day-years—1260 years. Its fortunes are parallel with those of the city under the Turks, and the tribes scattered abroad. The Holy City lies in the dust, with only here and there a stone monumental of its ruin. But when power descends from the heaven with Jesus, he will by that power refashion the ruins, and bring them forth for a Name and City of his Deity—a name and city composed of the Sons and Daughters of Omnipotence. Thus the city is “out of the Deity,” for it can have no existence apart from his wisdom and power. The ashes of its dead would never be refashioned spontaneously. If this were possible, the city might be said to ascend from the dust; but this is not possible, therefore the city is represented apocalyptically, as “descending out of the heaven from the Deity,” to indicate the direction from which the formative energy is derived, and to connect the operation with the appearing of Jesus Christ. But, in relation to the New Jerusalem, p. 400 I shall defer the further consideration thereof until I come to consider John’s vision of its descent in Apoc. xxi.
10. A Clerical Exposition
I shall conclude this exposition of the epistle to the Angel-Presbytery at Philadelphia, by reproducing what the Church of England Bishop Newton has said upon the subject. It will afford the reader a specimen of high orthodox apocalyptic interpretation, of which the humblest among the saints would be thoroughly ashamed.
“Philadelphia, so called,” says he, “from Attalus Philadelphus its builder, is distant from Sardis about twenty-seven miles to the south-east. It is called by the Turks Allah Shah, or the beautiful city, on account of its delightful situation, standing on the declivity of the mountain Tmolus, and having a most pleasant prospect on the plains beneath, well furnished with divers villages, and watered by the river Pactolus. It still retains the form of a city, with something of trade to invite the people to it, being the road of the Persian caravans. Here is little of antiquity remaining besides the ruins of a church dedicated to St. John, which is now made a dunghill to receive the offal of dead beasts. However, God hath been pleased to preserve some in this place to make profession of the Christian faith, there being above two hundred houses of christians, and four churches, whereof the chief is dedicated to Panagia, or the Holy Virgin, the other to St. George, who is of great fame among the oriental christians; the third to St. Theodore, and the fourth to St. Taxiarchus, as St. Michael the archangel is called by the Greeks. Next to Smyrna, this city hath the greatest number of christians, and Christ hath promised a more particular protection to it. See Rev. iii. 8, 9, 10. Than which, as Dr. Spon saith, what could be said more formally to foretel the coming of the Turks, the open enemies of christianity, who seem to be sent on purpose for the punishment of our crimes, and to distinguish the faithful from the false christians, who pretend to be so, and are not?”
This is all the bishop has to say in exposition of the letter before us; and his remarks upon all the other letters are as vapid and shallow as the specimen here given. He evidently knew more of geography and archæology, than of the christian faith; and evinces a very low conception of the divine character in supposing a special preservation of the worshippers of the Virgin and the saints “to make a profession,” which makes the name of christianity a stench in the nostrils of the followers of Mohammed, who justly regard them as a set of contemptible idolaters.