8.—The New World and the Angel of the Bow
The destruction of the fourth beast of Daniel by the Rainbowed Angel’s pillars of fire will be the dissolution of the European commonwealth. When the old world hath fallen thus, what will be the destiny of the new? Will it escape “the burning flame?” and, when “the kingdoms of the old world become the kingdoms of Yahweh and of his Anointed,” will the colonial and republican institutions of the American continent remain intact? Why should they so remain? American society is but an extension of European. Their civil and spiritual institutions are identical; their superstitions and blasphemies as God-dishonoring, word-nullifying, and perversive of p. 571 “his way.” The earth is as corrupt as in the days of Noah; “for all flesh,” in both hemispheres, “have corrupted his way upon the earth”—Gen. vi. 11, 12. It is only necessary to understand the way of salvation as taught by the apostles to see this. Seeing, then, that the Deity swept into the abyss the whole human family except Noah and his house for this crime, why should not the American world be punished, being guilty of the same iniquity? There is every reason to conclude that judgment will fall upon it with great severity. Its idolatry of self is God-defiant; and it needs to be taught that there is One almightier than the dollar, and stronger than the human will.
There is no symbolical revelation of events to be developed upon the American arena; there are, however, general declarations, which show what must of necessity be developed in the course of the Rainbowed Angel’s mission upon this continent from one end of it to the other. Thus, the principle is oracular, that “ALL nations shall come and worship before the all-powerful Yahweh Elohim;” and that “they will learn righteousness.” This necessitates instructors, and a system of instruction, such as does not exist on earth at this time—an enlightening power no less than divine. It also requires a disposition, a child-like disposition, which exists not in the public mind, neither in the ignorant people, nor in their blind and conceited guides. To correct this fatal evil, and to break the power of ignorance, which is “the power of Satan,” the angelic “pillars of fire” must march through the land; for it is written, “When the judgments of Yahweh are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness”—Isa. xxvi. 9; Apoc. xv. 4.
And when they have learned this lesson, so difficult for individuals and nations, their lofty looks will be humbled, and their haughtiness will be bowed down, and Yahweh alone will be exalted—Isa. ii. 10, 11. British and American pride will be prostrate in the dust; and “the people the source of all power,” an exploded fiction of the past. “In that day, Yahweh alone shall be exalted.” Popular sovereignty will be a dead putrescent carcase; and all who derive their power and authority from it will be abased. Such a consummation as this, and so devoutly to be wished, can only be developed by Omnipotence—by the powerful angel of the covenant. The fate of the old world must necessarily be the fate of this whole American continent; for it is written of the Spirit, saying to the Son of David, “I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession”—Ps. ii. 8. This is certainly comprehensive of the western hemisphere. The p. 572 Eternal Spirit gives this to the Rainbowed Angel in fee. All power and authority here must, therefore, be derived from him, not from the people; and in these there will be no democracy or republicanism, but divine and imperial despotism, pure and simple; for “he shall rule the nations with a rod of iron”—Ps. ii. 9; Apoc. xix. 15; ii. 26, 27; “and Yahweh shall be king over all the earth; in that day there shall be one Yahweh, and his name one”—Zech. xiv. 9. This is conclusive. No one believing the scripture can respect the traditions of Americanism. The Monroe doctrine, and the millennial perpetuity of the Union, will be a derision to the cloud-invested angel, as they are now to all who have “the patience of the saints,” “the commandments of the Deity, and the faith of Jesus”—Apoc. xiv. 12. All the States of the new world will be taken possession of by them; for “the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole of the heavens is given to the people of the saints of the Most High Ones . . . and all dominions shall serve and obey him”—Dan. vii. 27. It is manifest, therefore, that the destiny of all colonies, and republics, and empires, upon the American arena, has long since been decreed; and that destiny is unquestionably glorious and blessed—that of being delivered by judicial power from the debasing tyranny under which they now groan; and of becoming the flourishing and happy provinces of an imperial dominion, coextensive with the globe, under which life, liberty, and property, will be secure; “mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and peace embrace each other;” and “glory will be to the Deity in the highest heavens, over the earth peace, and goodwill among men”—Ps. lxxxv. 10; Luke ii. 14. “Hitherto is the end of the matter”—Dan. vii. 28. The wars of the Angel of the Bow culminate in the conquest of a peace, which extinguishes all belligerent conflagration in the earth for a thousand years.
9.—The Angel Rests from his Labors
Synchronical with this “end of the matter” is the blessedness of the dead in “rest from their labors.” The end of the Exodus from Egypt, and the destruction of the fourth beast in all its relations, domestic and foreign, being now attained by their almighty prowess, the end of Micah’s 40 years is duly arrived at. It is, therefore, written by command of a voice from the heaven, newly planted and firmly established (Isa. li. 16): “Blessed at this time are the dead who die in the Lord. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from p. 573 their labors: and their works HE goes with them”—Apoc. xiv. 13. This is the time for the righteous dead, who have been caused to spring out of the earth, and afterwards been quickened by Christ who is their life, to be blessed in the Millennial Sabbatism. The millennial rest cannot be enjoyed by the called, and chosen, and faithful saints so long as the fourth beast ecclesiasticism is undestroyed. The Lion-Mouth of this system of ignorance and imposition “speaks great things and blasphemies,” by which the Deity is blasphemed in “blaspheming his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in the heaven”—Apoc. xiii. 5, 6. The saints, though resurrected and immortalized, can have no rest while this, their old enemy, who, in the days of their flesh, made war upon them and overcame them (ver. 7; xi. 7; Dan. vii. 21), remains unconquered and undestroyed. When this is compassed their rest is attained. At this time, απαρτι, or, from now; the now beginning at this consummation of their works. They had “died in the Lord,” which they only do when they die who believe the glad tidings of the kingdom of the Deity and name of Jesus Christ, and are subsequently immersed; they had been caused to spring forth from the earth; they had been judged; and, by quickening, had been organized into the cloud-invested angel of the covenant, or bow; and, following the Lamb whithersoever he went, in all his wars, had conquered three of Daniel’s beasts, and destroyed the fourth; and, in so doing, had delivered and regenerated the twelve tribes of Israel, restored all things, and abolished the superstition of the world. These are their works, the works of Jesus and his Brethren, and the consummation of them, which brings to them rest for “a season and a time.”
But, in the text before us, we are given to understand that Jesus and his Brethren did not do all these wonderful and mighty works by their own independent and inherent power. In the days of his flesh, Jesus said to the Jews, “I can of my own self do nothing;” and again, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself . . . but what things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise”—John v. 19, 30; and “the Father who dwelleth in me he doeth the works”—John xiv. 10. This doctrine is incorporated in the apocalyptic symbolography. It is true in regard to all the works of that remarkable prophecy. It is the Father, the Eternal Power, the Spirit, who doeth the works: as he said to Zechariah, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith YAHWEH Tz’vaoth”—ch. iv. 6. Of their own selves Jesus and his Brethren can do nothing. Their almightiness is of the Father-Spirit. p. 574 “Whithersoever the Spirit was to go they went”—Ezek. i. 12, 20; and where they went, there the Spirit of their Father worked. Hence the peculiarity of the sentence, τα δε εργα αυτων ακολουθει μετ ’αυτων—“and their works He goes with them.” He attends upon them as ακολουθος, a camp-follower. He is present in all their encampments; and all the defeats they give their enemies is by his power. How could it be otherwise? For, having been begotten and born of the Spirit, they are as much Spirit as that which has been begotten and born of the flesh is flesh—John iii. 6. Therefore, what they do must of necessity be done by the Spirit—“He goes with them;” and “their works,” the works of the Angel of the Covenant, signified in his roaring, in the little scroll, and in the seven thunders, He does with almighty and invincible power.
10.—The Seven Thunders
Apocalyptic thunder is significant of war. Seven thunders are either so many distinct wars; or, they are war of complete and intense severity; or the wars are styled seven thunders, because they are the thunderings of the Seven Spirits of the Deity sent forth from before the throne into all the earth—Apoc. iv. 5; v. 6. This, I believe is the correct definition. If the spirits of the Deity had been eight instead of seven, it would have changed the arrangement of the whole prophecy. There would then have been eight apocalyptic epistles to eight ecclesias, eight seals, eight trumpets, eight vials, and eight thunders. But seven is the Divine Number of the Spirit; and, therefore, all these are numbered sevenfold; and the Spirit is symbolized by “seven horns and sevep eyes,” as significative of omnipotence and omniscience.
The Rainbowed Angel is the Seven Spirits incorporate in Jesus and his Brethren going forth in their wars into all the earth. Hence the connection between the lion-roar of his voice and the voices of the seven thunders—“And he cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth; and when he cried, the Seven Thunders uttered their voices.” If the angel had not crashed forth his voice, there would have been no thunderings reverberating their echoes through the aérial of the Sin-Powers of the world. The thunders are, therefore, the echoes of the voice of the All-powerful and Omniscient Seven. They are the wars of the Saints in the execution of “the judgment written,” and “given to them;” and waged against Babylon and the apocalyptic beasts in what remains of the sixth vial after the return of Christ, and in all the seventh, until the wrath of Deity is p. 575 filled up, and the smoke from his glory and power no longer prevents an entrance into the nave—Apoc. xv. 8.
“And when,” says John, “the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write.” The voices of these thunders imported the things to be transacted in the wars. When John heard the revelation of them, he was about to make a record of them for the information of the servants of the Deity; but this he was forbidden to do by a voice from the heaven, saying, “Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.” This shows that the voices of the thunders were their utterances; and that these were things expressed in words that could be intelligibly recorded. To seal up is to conceal; and to conceal what he had heard them say, was to obey the command, “Write them not.” When the time of the thunderings from the rainbowed throne arrives, the things they uttered will be unsealed. The unsealing of them will be the practical development of them in the execution of the judgments by the saints in the time of the end. This also will be the unclosing and unsealing of the words and the book which Daniel was commanded to shut up and seal till the time of the end—ch. xii. 4, 9; and this unclosing and unsealing in that time is symbolized by the little open scroll in the angel’s hand. As the apocalypse is a revelation for the sealed servants of the Deity alone, it was deemed inexpedient to write in detail the things in which they would be practically engaged. The apocalypse is not for their enemies; hence the universal failure of all their attempts to expound it. To these, the prophesyings of the thunders were to be impenetrable. They were not to be permitted even to read them; therefore, the Spirit said, “Write them not.” Thus, they can only be read in the history of “the terrible doings of the Elohim toward the children of men,” in bringing them to submit themselves to the glorious majesty of the kingdom—Ps. lxvi. 3-7. The utterances of the thunders will be written upon the historic page by the valiant and mighty deeds of all the saints. This is the only record of them the world will be permitted to inspect.
11.—The Angel’s Oath
The oath is the protestation of the saints-spirit swearing by Spirit—by the all-creating Spirit—concerning the termination of the times attested in the oath of the Spirit in the hearing of Daniel—xii. 7. This prophet saw in vision a man clothed in linen, standing upon the waters; and John saw a man clothed with a p. 576 multitudinous cloud, standing upon the sea. They both have their feet upon the waters; which imports that the peoples shall be subject to them whom they represent. Daniel heard the question put to the linen-invested man, “How long to the end of these wonders?” This elicited an oath from him with uplifted hands to heaven, in which he declared by THE LIVING ONE OF THE FUTURE AGE, בחי העולם, b’khai hă-olahm (ὁ ζων εις τους αιωνας των αιωνων), that it should be “for a time, times, and a half:” that is, that the ending of the wonders should be synchronical with the end of that cycle of time. In this oath he declared the duration of the wonders, but not the beginning of the period. The duration expressed in figures is 1260 years. Daniel did not hear when they began; but he was informed of a certain event that would characterize their terminal epoch—the concentration of, the power of the holy people. So long as the twelve tribes of Israel remain scattered among the nations, their power is scattered. It will occupy forty years after the Rainbowed Multitude commence their labors before they will have established the twelve tribes in the Holy Land, an independent, glorious, and powerful kingdom, under David II., their King and Prince for the future age—Ezek. xxxvii. 21-28. When this is accomplished, the multitudinous angel of the covenant will have “accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people;” which is the same as to cease to scatter it, or equivalent to restitution in the era of Israel’s regeneration—Matt. xix. 28. The development of this work will be terminal with 1260, which ought to be a jubilee year, in which every Israelite of that generation shall return to his possessions—Lev. xxv. 10. Be this as it may, this 1260 will not end so long as “the whole house of Israel” is helplessly trodden under foot of the Gentile governments. It must be restored “as in the days of old”—Amos ix. 11-15; Acts xv. 16; and then the wonders revealed to Daniel will have been fully developed.
Thus he heard, “but,” says he, “I understood not;” he then inquired about the end of these times, saying, “O my lord, what the end of these?”—of “the time, times, and a half?” But, the only additional premises supplied was the coëval termination of 1335 years; when his lot or inheritance, should be developed, as the result of wonders elaborated during 40 subsequent years; and hé should stand in it.
Such was the scanty information vouchsafed to Daniel 2400 years ago. The times, however, still remained incomprehensible to him. He was like other prophets “who inquired and searched diligently, searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of the Christ that p. 577 was in them did signify, when it testified before hand the sufferings of the Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not for themselves, but for us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them (the apostles) who have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into”—1 Pet. i. 11, 12. He might have been told, that the times, or 1260 years, when the glory should follow, would end in a certain year of the world’s age. This would have been very gratifying to his curiosity and to ours; but such information was not granted to any “until the time of the end.” He was therefore commanded to go his way, which is the way of all the earth. He was to die in ignorance of the year of the world’s age when the 1260 should terminate; but he is to rise again in the time of the end, and to become one of the cloud with which the Spirit will then be invested. Then the words will be no longer closed and sealed. He will himself be engaged in the work of unclosing and unsealing in the time of the end, when “the mystery of the Deity will be finished,” and fully “opened” to his view.
But, six hundred and thirty-eight years after Daniel went his way (he died in the first year of Cyrus’ sole reign, B. C. 540; which was the third from the capture of Babylon, and the death of Lucifer—Dan. i. 21; x. 1; Isai. xiv. 12; Dan. v. 30), John was favored with a vision of the same man seen by Daniel, only instead of seeing him clothed with linen at the time, he saw him “clothed with a cloud.” He had to communicate with John upon the same subject he had been treating of with Daniel—upon the “How long to the end of the wonders?” In effect, he swore by Him who lives for the Millennial Future, that when he should stand upon the sea and upon the earth, χρονος ουκ εσται ετι—Time should be no longer; that is, “the time, times, and a half” should expire; therefore, he adds, “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall sound, ὅταν μελλη σαλπιζειν, the Mystery of the Deity should also be finished, as he hath declared the good news, ὡς ευαγγελισε, to his servants the prophets”—ch. x. 6, 7. The time, concerning which Daniel inquired, saying: “What the end of these times?” is to continue “no longer” than the sounding of the seventh and last trumpet. When this shall sound, the 1260 time of Dan. xii. 7. will all be in the past—this time will be longer; but will be superseded by another “manner of time,” commonly styled, “The Millennium;” by Daniel העולם hah-olahm; and by John, as in verse 6, οι αιωνες των αιωνων, the cycles of the cycles, which constitute YAHWEH’S TIMES, or the future age—Isai. xxxiii. 5, 6.
p. 578 Such is the angel’s oath. It is to be remarked, that he did not sware, that the 1260 time should be no longer than when the seventh angel should begin to sound, as rendered in the English Version; but “when he shall sound,” which sounding will occupy “days;” for he said, “in the days of the voice.” This indicates an indefinite continuance of the voice: indefinite as far as the words of the oath are concerned. In the days of sounding, neither at the beginning, nor in the middle, of the sounding; but when the sounding shall be progressing, the mystery shall be finished. The sixth trumpet ended with “the remnant giving glory to the Deity of the heaven”—Apoc. xi. 13; which was nationally proclaimed May 7, A. D. 1794. Since that event the seventh angel has been sounding. He is sounding his trumpet at the present time. It is “the third woe,” in the development of which, direful calamities befall the catholic and protestant “worshippers of the dæmonials and idols,” not expressly detailed. This American woe, which afflicts the old and new worlds, is, doubtless, an unwritten calamity of the seventh trumpet. It is a just punishment upon “the spirituals of the wickedness in the heavenlies”—in Church and State, and upon the blind multitude which is led by them into the ditch, “the last ditch,” which will engulf them all. This seventh trumpet is “the last trumpet;” and will not cease to sound until “the mystery of the Deity is finished as he hath declared the glad tidings to his servants the prophets;” that is, until the end of the seventh vial, in the consummation of which John heard the announcement from the throne “IT IS DONE!”—ch. xvi. 17. What is done, or finished? The only answer possible is, “the Mystery of the Deity is finished.”
Now, on the ground of the commencement of the seventh trumpet “quickly” after the ending of the sixth; that is, in the same year; the seventh trumpet has been sounding seventy years in the current A. D. 1865. But it will probably continue to sound forty years longer, or till A. D. 1905-8; making in all a period of one hundred and ten years. Hence, this century and a fraction answers to the “days of the voice of the seventh angel.” In these days the mystery is to be finished; and the “time” of the mystery “will be no longer”—the 1260 will be all expired, and the thousand years begin. Looking at the events of the past seventy years, and at the present woeful condition of this “evil world,” no one can be so blind as to say that the mystery is finished. Its finishing then, is unquestionably in the future; which will be an epoch of the world’s history—“a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation to that same time”—Dan. xii. 1: “Blessed is he that watcheth, p. 579 and keeps his garments;” and is able to discern the time—Apoc. xvi. 15.
12.—The Mystery
In my translation, I have rendered the words ευηγγελισε, as he hath declared the glad tidings. The English Version reads as he hath declared. But this is not the full import of the verb ευαγγελιζω. This is compounded of the adverb ευ, good, and the verb αγγελλω, to announce by one sent; by a messenger, or angel. The context of the English Version shows that the thing declared to the prophets was “the mystery,” or secret purpose “of the Deity;” but its rendering does not indicate whether the import of that mystery was good or bad. The original gives us to understand that the subject-matter of the mystery was good—or glad tidings of great joy. Good, of course, to the servants of the Deity, the Father’s sealed ones; not to those who are obnoxious to the “pillars of fire,” which march in indignation through the countries of “the earth and sea.” This mystery of the Deity to be finished is styled by Paul “the mystery of Christ,” “the mystery of the gospel,” “the mystery of the Deity’s will,” “the mystery of godliness,” “the mystery of the Deity, even of the Father and the Christ.” These are not many mysteries, but one and the same mystery, which he says, was “hid from the αιωνες,” or Mosaic and prophetic cycles of time; “and from the γενεα,” or thrice fourteen, that is from the forty-two generations between Abraham and Christ; and in another place he says that it was “hid from the aions in the Deity;” or “kept secret χρονοις αιωνιοις in the times of the aions.
It was the special function of the apostles to make known this mystery in their preaching. Paul was a prisoner in bonds because of his zealous labors in this enterprise. As we have seen before, it was revealed or declared to the prophets; but the revelation was not in the same form as was the revelation of it to and by the apostles. This appears from Paul’s teachings, who says concerning “the mystery of the gospel, for which he was an ambassador in bonds,” “in other generations it was not made known to the sons of men as it is now απεκαλυφθη[?], apocalypsed or revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by spirit;” among whom he includes himself in saying, “κατα αποκαλυψίν, by revelation he made known to me the mystery.” They were commanded to go and make manifest this important and long concealed secret to every creature under the Roman heaven. This was the apostolic work in which John and his p. 580 companions were engaged. The whole ground of their prophesying was covered by the ευαγγελιον, by the κηρυγμα, and by the αποκαλυψιν μυστηριον; that is, by the good-announcement they made as the messengers of heaven; by the proclamation of Jesus as the Christ; and by the revelation of the secret, which none of the chief men of their time knew anything about. These are the three grand divisions of the great subject they handled, and in the right understanding of which they sought to establish all true believers. In addressing such, Paul says, the only wise Deity establish you “by my evangile,” good-announcement, or gospel, “and proclamation of Jesus Christ; by the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret in aionian times, but now is made manifest through the prophetic writings by command of the aionian Deity (the Deity of the times of the law) made known for obedience of faith to all the nations.” They set forth in their teachng the gospel preached to Abraham; and afterwards preached by Moses to the enslaved Israelites in Egypt; and next προεπηγγειλατο, previously announced through His prophets in the holy writings; and then by John the Baptist, Jesus and his disciples, before the crucifixion; after this, they proved that Jesus was the promised and expected Christ, or Son of David and Son of the Deity, raised from among the dead to be King of Israel; and they showed how remission of sins and eternal life might be obtained through his name. “The sufferings of the Christ and the glory that should follow,” are the more general and twofold division of the mystery; or in other words, “the things concerning the Kingdom of the Deity, and the Name of Jesus Christ;” which every one taught by them who desired to share in the great salvation, practically elaborated by the Spirit-Angel of the Bow, believed, and obtained aright to by being aqueously immersed into Christ. From this exposition, then, the reader will perceive, that, the mystery previously announced through the prophets, and preached by the apostles, is not yet finished. Multitudes have received the remission of sins and a right to eternal life, on the basis of the sufferings of the Christ, belief of the truth, and immersion into his name; but the realization of their right in the kingdom of which they are “heirs;” and the blessedness of all nations in Abraham and his Seed, are parts of the mystery previously announced to the prophets, “the Hope of the Gospel” and “the Hope of Israel,” which yet remain to be developed by the almighty power of the Spirit-Angel of the Bow,” in “the days of the seventh angel,” when he shall synchronically consummate “the wonders” and “the times”—Rom. i. 2; xvi. 25, 26; 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8; Eph. i. 9, 10; iii. 3-9; vi. 19, 20; Col. i. 26; iv. 3; Matt. i. 17.
p. 58113.—The Dramatic Consummation of the Vision
The prophecy of this tenth chapter is descriptive of a piece to be performed upon the arena of the fourth-beast dominion. The dramatis personæ are the Voice in the heaven, the Angel, and John. “I am the Voice,” said John the Baptist, “of one crying in the wilderness.” It is correct, therefore, to say that “the Voice in the heaven” is a person. The Voice personates the Father and the Son, who “are one;” and the Angel personates a multitude, who are “made perfect in one, as the Father is in Jesus, and Christ in him”—John xvii. 23; and shall we say that John only personates his individual self in the midst of this multitudinous unity? I believe not; but that, in this dramatic scene, he is the representative of a class of agents; and that the part which he performs in it is symbolical of their agency in connexion with the angel in carrying into effect the judgments written in the little opened scroll. It was said to John, as recorded in verse 11, “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” He did not do this in any sense between his release from Patmos and his decease. His prophesying, therefore, as herein specified, must be in the future; and can only be then subsequently to his resurrection from among the dead. As a resurrected, approved, and immortal man, he will again stand before kings and nations, and “prophesy.” But not he alone. He will only be one among “thy servants the prophets, and the saints, and them that fear thy name, both small and great”—ch. xi. 18. These all will “prophesy again before many peoples,” &c., after they are raised and immortalized. Hence, John in the scene before us, is their representative; and what he does by command of the Voice in the heaven, they will all likewise have to do.
Illustrative of this, John was commanded to “go and take the little scroll which had been opened in the angel’s hand.” Here was an action to be performed. When commanded, John had not the book, or scroll; nor was he where the angel stood: but when he obeyed, he stands with the angel, the scroll disappears in John’s substance, and he confronts the peoples, nations, tongues, and kings. This dramatic consummation demonstrates that the Angel and the class of agents John represents are identical. The Angel, therefore, symbolizes John and his associates as the scroll incorporate; that is, after they eat the scroll they occupy the position of the angel upon the sea and upon the earth; and in their prophesying again, their voice crashes with the roaring of the seven thunders. They become, like James and John, “the sons of thunder”—Mark iii. 17; and shake the heavens with their voice.
p. 582 “Go and take the little scroll that has been opened.” They “go” when “gathered” by the angels of his power to the Lord Jesus Christ in the Peninsula of Sinai: and they “take” the scroll when transformed into the likeness of the body of his glory by the energy whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself—Phil. iii. 21. Having taken the scroll they are commanded to “eat it up.” “Thy words were found,” says Jeremiah,” “and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for thy name is called upon me, O Yahweh Elohim of hosts”—ch. xv. 16. Jeremiah is one of those who will eat the little scroll; and in consequence become a constituent of the same; that is, of the angel. We may see from this, that words may be eaten as well as more material substances. To eat words is first to know them, then to understand their meaning; thirdly, to believe this heartily, and to assimilate it to our mental habitude, that it may become the rule of our thought and action. When this result is attained, the words are not only eaten, but eaten up, or thoroughly digested; and they become part and parcel of the eater inseparably.
Ezekiel was put through this dramatic exercise as well as John and Jeremiah; and from the account he gives we may derive assistance in the exposition of the matter before us. A scroll held in a hand was sent to him. It was a scroll of judgment to be executed; for therein were written lamentations, and mourning, and woe—ch. ii. 8-10. This he was commanded to eat, and then to go and speak to Israel. What he eat was suggestive of what he afterwards spoke and wrote in his book. It was said to him, “Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this scroll that I give thee. Then,” says Ezekiel, “did I eat.” Now, the effects produced upon him by the eating to fulness being identical with those affecting John, we are enabled, upon the principle of like causes producing like effects, to determine what the contents were of the little scroll eaten by John. Ezekiel and John were similarly affected. “It was in my mouth,” says Ezekiel, “as honey for sweetness;” and then, in ch. iii. 14, he tells us “the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the hot anger of my spirit: and the hand of Yahweh was strong upon me.” And when John applied for the opened scroll, and it was given to him, he was told by the angel it should make his “belly bitter, but in his mouth be sweet as honey.”
Ezekiel’s scroll when eaten, though prophetic of judgments causing lamentations, and mourning, and woe, was as honey for sweetness, because, “the judgments of Yahweh are true and righteous p. 583 altogether; more to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey, and droppings of honeycombs. Moreover by them is thy servant warned; and in keeping them there is great reward”—Ps. xix. 10, 11. This explains the sweetness in the mouths of Ezekiel and John. The contents of the scrolls were the joy and rejoicing of their hearts; for in the complete execution of “the judgments written,” they saw the development of the promised recompense of reward.
But this sweetness of mouth was followed with bitterness of belly. This condition of body imports “hot anger,” as is manifest from Ezekiel iii. 14. Moses connects bitter with destruction in his threatening of punishment upon Israel: “They shall be burnt,” says he, “with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction”—Deut. xxxii. 24. Fellows inflamed with anger, and ready to execute vengeance upon the objects of their wrath, are said to be “bitter of soul:” this appears from the original of Judg. xviii. 25, where the Danites say to Micah, “Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest fellows bitter of soul run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household.” Here, loss of life to Micah and his dependants is predicated upon the bitterness of soul or body, of his enemies. Also in 2 Sam. xvii. 8, David and his mighty men are said to be מרי נפש mahrai nephesh, “bitter of soul as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field:” the robbed bear is a striking illustration of the nature of the bitterness—that it is a very fierce condition of mind. But, I need add no more examples illustrative of the import of the phrase, “my belly was bitter.” John ate the scroll. The effects produced upon him by the eating prove it to be the scroll of “judgment given to the saints,” when they are prepared “to execute the judgments written.” It is sweet to their taste, because of its truth and righteousness; and the great reward its consummation will secure them: and their body corporate becomes bitter when they set forth to destroy Babylon, and the powers which sustain her. Their blood had been shed copiously by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of “Antichristendom;” and now the time arrives to repay them “double.” They become a flaming and consuming fire; and pour out from their bitterness of soul, “the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” In Babylon, at “the Hour of Judgment,” “is found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth;” and, as it is written, “precious in the eyes of Yahweh is the death of his saints;” therefore they are exhorted in their bitterness of soul, to “reward her even as she rewarded them, and to double unto her double according p. 584 to her works; in the cup which she hath filled to fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and” sorrow are they to “give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues (the seven thunders) come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine (judgments written in the little open scroll); and she shall be utterly burned with fire (with the “Feet like pillars of fire”): for strong is the Lord God (the cloud-invested angel of the bow) who judgeth her”—Apoc. xviii. 24; 6-8. After this manner, they will “prophesy again” against their old enemy, in bitterness of belly. But before they can do this, they must be like Ezekiel, only in a higher degree, “lifted up by the Spirit, with the hand, or power, of Yahweh strong upon them.” They must be exalted from flesh to spirit. Their bitterness will then be “bitterness in the heat of their spirit;” and in that bitterness they will go forth to “destroy them that corrupt the earth”—ch. xi. 18; xix. 2. This accomplished, they will rejoice in concert with the holy apostles and prophets, over the desolated and fallen prostitute; for the Deity will then have avenged them upon her—ch. xviii. 20; xix. 1-3.
14.—“Prophesy Again”
After John, as the representative of all the saints, had eaten up the little scroll of the judgments to be executed when the Angel of the Bow shall have been developed, he was told by the angel in vision, that he “must prophesy again against many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” In the Acts of Apostles we have several instances of their prophesying and of its effects. They all stood before the Sanhedrim and prophesied; and their prophesying resulted in an antagonism between them and the rulers; who, being then the more powerful party, ordered them to be scourged and imprisoned. Much of their prophesying was a proclamation of “the mystery of the Deity’s will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself;” which purpose is, “that in the economy of the fulness of the times (of the “time, times, and half a time” of Dan. xii. 7) he would gather under One Head the all things in the Christ; both the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, in him”—the things in the heavens, “things visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers;” and things upon the earth, “peoples, nations, and tongues”—Eph. i. 9; Col. i. 16; Dan. vii. 14. The proclamation of this purpose—of ruling mankind in righteousness by the crucified p. 585 King of the Jews, whom he had raised from among the dead—was exceedingly offensive to the Roman emperor and his adherents. An imperial edict was, therefore, published, forbidding any one to say, that there is another king than Cæsar; a proclamation that troubled both the people and their rulers—Acts xvii. 6-8, 31. The apostles and their colaborers, however, were not daunted by decrees and threatenings; they continued their prophesying both before and against the world, to the loss of liberty and life, which in the nature of things was almost inseparable from their “prophesy.”
But, the time will come to them when the nature of things will be changed. They will “prophesy again” when power will preponderate on their side. Their function then will be, like Ezekiel’s, “to prophesy and smite”—ch. xxi. 14;—to “turn waters into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will”—Apoc. xi. 6: This is the sort of prophesy resulting from eating up the little scroll. They proclaim the purpose of Deity, and that the time to carry it into effect hath arrived. In this they prophecy what is about to be; and they require all “peoples, nations, languages, and kings” to submit to the New Monarch of the earth. If these believe and obey the prophecy, it will be well with them; but if they resist it, the prophets will proceed to establish their prophecy with fire and sword. Their body will be like Samuel’s of old, who, in bitterness of soul, “hewed Agag in pieces.”