STUDIES ON THE Book of Revelation BY I. RODE TROVE ALL THINGS : HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD." Paul OAKLAND, CAL, ju0cbla pubtisbinci Company 50Q Walsworth Ave. 1902 THE E:XTRA:VCE OF THY \VOKOS GIVETH LIGHT." INTRODUCTION THERE is, said king Solomon, "no end to the making of books." What would the wise man have said if living in our day ? when literature by the train load is circulating to the remotest corners of civilization. God's blessed book, the Bible, had, during many cen- turies, been concealed in dark corners of Catholic monas- teries, read by none but the clergy, and little appreciated by them ; when, thanks to merciful Heaven, Martin Luther and other God-fearing men, brought it out from its hiding place, and gave it to the common people in the language they spoke ; and, thanks to the art of printing, soon learned to read. This literary revolution causes the Bible to be read, searched, and perused as no other book ever was or will be, shining a beacon light on the weary pilgrim's path, inspiring faith, hope, and love ; and peace of conscience because a peace with God, where formerly reigned total darkness and gloom of deepest despair. It must not however be forgotten that men, alas too often, guided by preconceived notions, twist its con- tents to their own ideas, instead of framing their minds to "Thus saith the LORD." This being so, and the v i i i 753464 STUDIES ON THE BOOK OF REVELATION CHAPTER I. OPENING the book, its sublimity at once appears : " The Revelation of JESUS Christ, which God gave unto Him." Mark this statement, " God gave it to JESUS." It is evident from this, that whatever knowledge our Savior previously had of those things, the language is framed by the Father ; hence, that vision, being from God, and sent to spiritually minded children of God, must be spiritually discerned. John saw seven churches, but in what form ? A modern artist, endeavoring to .paint what John saw, would, most likely draw sev.en houses, or rooms, filled with people gazing at a man ip a puipit , but John sees seven candle- stirka ; seemingly, at first, a queer representation, yet, when understood, a very simple and most significant em- blem ; because the church of Christ is the means of light to the world. (Matt. v. 14-16). In the midst of these light bearers walks the representa- tive of our Savior. This is significant of our Lord's never 6 HOOK OF REVELATION 7 ceasing presence among His faithful : " Lo, I am with you alway, unto the end of the age." Matt, xxviii. 20. But why just seven churches ? there were at time through the labor of Paul and the rest of them doubtless hundred of churches, why then that limited number ? Seven, being, in holy writ, the symbol of completeness, it symbolizes in this case the church of Christ as a whole, even to the remotest corners of the earth. Further, they were all Gentile churches. It may be argued that Jerusalem having been destroyed, which is perhaps true, and Israel scatterred to the four winds, they had no organized church anywhere. But, we ask, why was the Revelation not given at an earlier date ? Our Heavenly Father works all things systematically, and the fact that Israel as a nation is entirely ignored in the sym- bol of the Lord's church, sent directly from the Father, is a strong proof that their work was done; 'that their pre- eminence as a nation had ceased ; that time had arrived predicted by the prophet, saying: " I will number you to the sword, and ye shall bow down to slaugh- ter : because when I called, ye did not answer ; and when I spake, ye did not hear ; ... ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit ; and ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen : for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name." Isaiah, Ixv. 12-15, Let any one who considers this a picture of imagination follow Paul in Gal. iv. 19-31 : Hagar, in prototype is driven from Abraham's dwelling with her son, never re- turning. So Israel, because of wickedness, was expelled from their city and their land ; never again to possess it. Type and antitype must correspond, or the former loses its import. But as Ismael in the wilderness drank of the fountain pointed out by the angel, and quenching his thirst, 8 STUDIES ON THE did live, in " the wilderness of Paran," the mountains, (Gen. xxi. 9-21), so may Israel in this wilderness of the mountains, i. e. nations, drink from the fount of life; to which God's messenger, the gospel of life in Christ Jesus, is ever pointing. Other salvation or restoration for them there is none; they are no longer separated from other nations, the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, having been broken down. Eph. ii. 14. The prophesies of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others, about the return of Israel to Palestine after exile among the nations, have had their literal fulfillment when the nation returned from Babylon; and all Israel (again) dwelt in their cities. Ezra ii. 70; also, vi. 17. The land of Palestine was, in our Lord's day, rilled with men and beasts, as foretold by the prophet, (Jer. xxxi. 27), and the twelve tribes did in that day instantly serve God day and night in the hope of their God given promise. (Acts xxvi. 7). There is much more to be said along this line, but the above will suffice for our present purpose, as evidence why Israel were not separately chosen among the seven churches, as they certainly would have been if still possess- ing national pre-eminence as claimed by Chris tadelphians and other Age-to-come advocates. The communion cup, " The cup of the New Covenant in My blood (our Savior's blood"), Luke xxii. 20), is a farce if the New Covenant has not been established. And if it has been established, their restoration is in the past; for the Lord never promised to make a covenant with them in their exile. John was instructed to send letters to each of the seven churches; and not only that, but the letters were dictated in full, each one ending with a promise of reward for faithful service. But as those seven churches represent the BOOK OF REVELATION 9 fullness of our Lord's church throughout all the earth, each child of God has the right to apply all of those promises unto himself as if given to him or her personally. Let us then, dear reader, not only thus apply them, but also heed the Lord-given exhortations; lest, forgetful of duty, we come short of the reward. Each letter has in it the promise, " To him that overcometh;" none others are counted in. 10 STUDIES ON THE CHAPTER II. THE HUNDRED AND FORTY AND FOUR THOUSAND." " And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God ; and he cried with a great voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying ; Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed, an hundred and forty and four thousand,. sealed out of all the tribes of Israel. . . . And after these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and people, and tongues, standing before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands." Rev. vii. 2-9. " And I saw, and, behold, a Lamb standing on mount Zion, and with Him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads. . . , And I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, to every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people." Rev. xiv. 1-6. THE Book of God, plain, when rightly interpreted, has, by human tradition, been so perverted and mystified, that many an uninstructed church member actually fears con- templating its contents ; the Revelation particularly is looked upon as an absolutely impenetrable mystery, in- comprehensible as a teacher, and valueless as an exhorter. But even if admitting its high metaphorical expressions to be of less value, because more difficult to understand, than the plainer New Testament writings; it is, to the advanced BOOK OF REVELATION . II scholar and devout child of God, a source of consolation, strengthening of faith; nor can it have failed in its mission even in the day of its issue, as we shall see. The "woman," the church, the Lamb's bride, (Rev. xix. 7, 8; xxi. 2), was about the time the Revelation was written expelled from her home in Jerusalem, and driven abroad not only homeless, but surrounded by hosts of bitter ene- mies, seeking her life in the countries whithersoever she went. The spirit of Judaism that clung so tenaciously to her in Jerusalem, was not fully shaken off even among Gen- tile converts; as Paul's Galatian epistle plainly testifies. And even Paul, the powerful Gentile apostle, at times failed in the eyes of the people, to cope with the Judaistic gospel perverters, as is evident from the council at Jerusa- lem, called because of strife at Antioch. Acts xv. 1-31. Under these conditions of contention and disturbance, John, exiled on Patmos, was commissioned to promulgate his wonderful Revelation, shaking the prevailing spirit of Judaism and simultaneously quelling all fears of ex- tinguishing the young, and seemingly weak church, even in her exiled condition. A mistake made by men, when reading the Revelation, is to locate nearly all its visions as relating to events future in John's day. That the Revelator was shown things to come is evident, the object being to strengthen the church under its terrible trials; but past as well as present events were portrayed in the panorama as we shall see. " Write the things which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter." Rev. i, 19. Here the Revelator clearly distinguishes present from future events. And if any person doubts that events prior to John's time are described in the Revelation let him refer 12 STUDIES ON THE to chapter xii., where our Savior's birth and ascension are plainly set forth, as also His crucifixion in chapter v. 6, 9, 12, which events had, at that time, all past into history. With these thoughts it is pertinent to inquire, who were the " hundred and forty and four thousand" seen by John ap- parently separated or distinguished from the rest of man- kind ? Taking the literal reading of chapter vii.. we need not ask the question, being there plainly told they are twelve thousand from each tribe of Israel; but let us bear in mind that the book is highly metaphorical. Chapter vii. 3, says, that these " hundred and forty and four thousand, servants of God, were sealed ;" with what seal, or for what purpose is not here stated; but, chapter xiv. i, declares that they have in their foreheads the name of the Father, the great Creator. And verse 4 of the same chapter, that they are a "firstfruits unto God and the Lamb." It is indeed queer that men will locate this great sealing as future to our day. Ever since our first parents were clothed with coats of skin to cover their nakedness, (Gen. iii. 21), has the message of salvation through Christ gone abroad in the earth ; first, in types and shadows, until Christ came, and since, in plain unmistakable language. Nineteen centuries have passed since our Lord paid the ransom price, purchasing the whole estate lost by Adam and his posterity. Are we then to believe that not even a firstfruit has by this time been redeemed or even sealed? Such a position would be most preposterous, even nullify- ing our Lord's great redemptive work. John saw, as recorded in chapter vii., the sealing of these, twelve thousand of each tribe, and after that a great multitude of all nations, standing before the throne, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands, symbolizing purity and victory. And it would be nothing less than blasphemy BOOK OF REVELATION 13 to say that no one is pure, or has victory over sin in this age. But if any person from Gentile nations has had the victory, and who dare dispute that fact? then surely "the hundred and forty and four thousand," whoever they are> were sealed in the past, that work being perfected before the victory was given to any of the multitude from other nations. Chapter xiv. further says, that "the hundred and forty and four thousand," were not only sealed with "the Father's name in their foreheads," but "redeemed." Sealing and redeeming are two different and distinct operations. Abraham was sealed in his life time ; that is, he was chosen of God, and made the father of many nations, when as yet having no child. Rom. iv. 17. But knowing redemption from sin to be a work assigned to a future day, he looked forward to the day of Christ, and saw it prospec- tive! y with great rejoicing. John viii. 56. "The hundred and forty and four thousand" were re- deemed from among men, they being merely a firstfruit, a comparatively small lump; then another angel appeared "having the everlasting gospel to preach to all nations,, tribes, tongues, and peoples. " Rev. xiv. 6. The gospel of everlasting life and peace through our Lord Christ JESUS, having these many centuries been proclaimed (o all nations, and none other need be looked for, as none other is promised, we may be fully convinced, that the sealing, and redeeming of "the hundred and forty and four thou- sand," is an event long in the past. Millenarians, Christa- delphians and others may talk of gospel to be proclaimed in a fancied age-to-come; but Paul tells us plainly that any person, man, or angel proclaiming another gospel than he proclaimed "shall be accursed." Gal. i. 8. Our Savior stood in the synagogue of Nazareth pro- 14 STUDIES ON THE claiming the "acceptable year of God," not as coming in a future age, but as then "at hand," and present, the proph- ecy being at that day fulfilled. Luke iv. 16-21. This also accords with Paul: "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. vi. 2. The blessed day of salvation, predicted by the seers of Israel, sung of by their poets, and longed for by all God- fearing men among them, began with our Lord's first ad- vent, and will continue only until He returns from heaven with power and great glory, to make short work of sin and sinners in the earth. Rom. ix. 28. All talk of salvation or gospel preaching after that day has ended, is base delu- sion, founded on misconstruction of God's holy oracles, resulting in nothing but destruction to its followers. "The truth shall make you free." John viii. 32. A lie, no mat- ter how sincerely believed, is instrumental of murder to all deceived thereby. John viii. 44. This is the day of salvation, the year of acceptance with the Lord. And glory to the name of God, who, in this day, sends the message of salvation the globe around, in the gospel of redemption through Him who died for us, a law fulfilling ransom, that there is even now mercy with God for every sinner chosing to turn his steps in search of peace, and step into covenant relation to God, even to becoming "sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. " What are glad tidings, if that message is not? and "gospel" means "glad tidings." " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation ; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth !" Isa. lii. 7. Paul quotes this prophecy in Romans x. 15, as belonging to this age, and not to a fancied future mil- lennium. This message of salvation through the reigning BOOK OF REVELATION I 5 God of Israel, has now, in nineteen centuries, been going forth to all nations, like a fish net, gathering good and bad, to be separated in the judgment day, (Matt. xiii. 47-51); and as this work of gospel mission to all nations, was, in John's great vision, subsequent to sealing and redeeming "the hundred and forty and four thousand," their delivery certainly is in the past. Who then are they? Let us refer, first, to the law that had a shadow of good things to come, Heb. x. i, and met its antitype or fulfillment in our Lord Christ JESUS. God commanded Israel to offer, as a paschal firstfruit, an omer * or handful, before eating as much as an ear of green corn from the year's crop. Lev. xxiii. 10. Seven weeks from that time, on the day of Pentecost, they were to bring another offering, also called firstfruit, which, though it may seem peculiar, was to be baked with leaven, Lev. xxiii. 15-17 ; and four months later, at the feast of tabernacles, when their harvest was fully gathered, they were com- manded to bring their greatest offering of all. Lev. xxiii. 39-44; Num. xxix. 7-40. Why should the pentecostal firstfruits be leavened, in contradistinction to all other offer- ings? Did the law containing a "shadow of good things to come," thus foreshadow that anything unclean should be presented to the LORD? and if so, would it be by Him accepted ? or, if not, then what means this pentecostal firstfruit, presented in a leavened state ? The prophet Jere- miah says: "Israel is holiness unto the LORD, and the first- fruits of His increase." Jer. ii. 3. What is this mentioned harvest or increase of which Israel is the firstfruit? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, at first empty and barren, (Gen. i. 2), but even then, the LORD in His foreknowledge and wisdom rejoiced in -the habitable * See Note at the end ot chapter. 1 6 STUDIES ON THE parts of the earth, and delighted in the sons of men. Prov. viii. 31. The heavens were, at that time, the abode of countless angelic hosts, serving God with holy fear, walking worthy of their Creator, and singing praises to His holy name, as they subsequently praised His only begotten Son, upon the plains of Bethlehem; yet in the midst of this glory and grandeur of the LORD God contemplated another harvest, another increase of holy beings to do His bidding, praise His holy name, and swell the joy of heaven ; hence, the mandate: " Let us make man," (Gen. i. 26), man immprtal and perfect, in our likeness, redeemed and free from sin. The man, thus created, as also his offspring, transgress- ing the divine edict, fell into sin and pollution, became a " leavened" lump before God. Thus far, God's, so to speak, contemplated increase seemed as if becoming a failure; the image of God, wis- dom, purity, and loftiness of spirit, failed to manifest itself upon a single son or daughter of mortality. " All sinned 1 and came short of the glory of God." Rom. iii. 23. Then appeared upon the scene our great Redeemer, not only a son of mortality, but also the Son, only begotten of God,, in whose "mouth was found no guile ;" not so much as an accidental mistake against His Father's command can be laid to His charge, even His bitter enemies were silent when challenged to convince Him of any sin. John viii. 46. Truly did He stand the test, proving obedient until death on the cruel cross ended His probation, and having, through suffering and trials, been perfected to His Father's likeness, He died out of His earthborn Adamic relation, and was exalted to His Father, though for a short time life- less in the dust, becoming in reality, " the beginning of God's creation." Rev. iii. 14. "The firstfruits of them BOOK OF REVELATION I 7 that slept." i Cor. xv. 20. "The image of the invisible God, the first-born of all [the new] creation." Col. i. 15. Here then is seen the antitypical firstfruit, the real paschal offering typified by the "omer", .commanded to be given to the LORD annually, before any person could consume as much as an ear of green corn. And, though born under Adamic penalty, He was, on that eventful pass- over-day presented to God a truly unleavened offering, having, as above stated, paid the penalty by dying to sin or out of sin relation, He became truly the unleavened be- ginning of God's creation, increase, or harvest, none could enter the Father's glory before Him. It is thus seen whom the paschal firstfruit represents, but whom or what was typified in the pentecostal leavened offering, also called the firstfruit ? God selected the seed of Jacob above all other nations, delivered them from Egyptian bondage whither they had wandered in search of food. Carried them on " eagles' wings," and brought them unto Himself. Ex. xix. 4. Not that every Israelite became a servant of God, but the true worshippers among them were God's chosen people, sealed during their life-time, the seal being that of circumcision, testifying before heaven and earth that they were God's chosen people, if only having the faith of Abraham, their great progenitor in works as well as in flesh relation. From these, of God's highly favored people, we find the "hundred and forty and four thousand" sealed servants of God, men- tioned in Revelation vii. We may wonder at that precise number, yet "twelve thousand" from each tribe is no more wonderful than exactly "twelve tribes." Remembering, however, our dealing with apocalyptical problems, we are not necessarily limited to that number, but have reason to 2 l8 STUDIES ON THE expect a great many more, there being in Elijah's time when idolatry occupied the high seat, no less than " seven thousand" in one generation, but as twelve times twelve represented the square or perfection of Israel's thousands, the symbol is very fitting, showing the perfect one of Israel, or the election, as Paul calls them, (Rom. xi. 7), who ob- tained mercy with God, or were sealed, while the multi- tudinous host of faithless idolators, or lovers of mammon, among them were blinded and cast off. We shall now proceed to notice the unanimity of Old and New Testament writers in calling those chosen or sealed Israelites the firstfruits; or, what signifies the same thing, beginning of God's increase. First : God told them, through Moses the mediator, that they should be to Him a peculiar treasure, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, if keeping His law, and abiding in His covenant. Ex. xix. 5, 6. The LORD had carried them on "eagles' wings," and brought them unto Himself, (verse 4), and now, when they promised to obey His voice, and keep the covenant He was about to make with them, He gave them His law embodying that covenant, thus revealing to them His perfect will, at that time entirely unknown to all the earth, as written in the Psalms : " He showeth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any other nation : and as for His judgments, they have not known them." Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20. Israel was the first, or rather, the only nation with whom God stepped into covenant relation; to them, and to them only, was His law proclaimed that became a "schoolmaster to Christ." Gal. iii. 24. And, while the masses of them in all ages and generations, turned a deaf ear to God's com- mand, there was at all times a "remnant" left among them BOOK OF REVELATION iQ serving God with fervency and zeal, circumcising not only their flesh but their hearts and ears, while all other nations lay totally blinded in carnal lusts, and idolatrous pollution. Thus, Israel was indeed God's firstfruit, or first people among whom God worked and began to gather His in- crease. " Israel is holiness unto the LORD, the firstfruit of His increase." Jer. ii. 3. " In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and uncleanness. " Zech. xiii. i. Why open this fountain to the house of David ? Why not open it to the houses of Pharaoh, Abimelech, Baalim, or Cyrus? These were all Noah's legal descendants as well as was David, and certainly included in the covenant God made with him; never again to drown the earth containing his pos- terity. The sin cleansing fountain had, in God's plan and purpose, to be opened in David's house, because he was at the head of God's beloved nation Israel. Moses re- hearsing the covenant unto Israel, said : " For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God : the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. " Deut. vii.6. Similar testimony is found in Psalm cvi. 5, as also in Psalm cv. 6, 42, 43. Many like testimonies there are, but these will suffice to show Israel's pre- eminence and favor with God above all other nations. Never has God so dealt with a nation as with Israel. Tak- ing them from Egyptian slavery of the most oppressive kind, He fed them forty years in a land not producing food enough to keep them from starvation. His holy arm was ever seen in their midst, teaching them to fear His name, and lean upon Him alone in times of tribulation and need, nor were His works among them done in vain. 20 STUDIES ON THE God, whose spirit alone can teach men to fear His name and elevate their minds above the brute, did not work among other nations at that time. Israel alone was favored with God's presence; they, and they only of all tribes and nations, could turn to God, learn His ways, and be fitted for eternal life. They were indeed His firstfruit, the beginning of His increase, as Jeremiah said. This was the LORD'S plan of calling them first, and collecting His chosen ones from their midst before turning to other nations. Our Savior declared He was sent to none but "The lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matt, xv. 24. And when sending out His chosen messengers." "two and two" to proclaim "the kingdom at hand," He for- bade them entering Gentile or Samaritan cities, confining their labors exclusively to "Israel." Matt. x. 5. And though He was at one time constrained by truth hungry Samaritans to enter their city and abide their two days, at which time, seeing the people gather around Him so numerous that He declared the fields ready for harvest, (John iv. 35, we have no record of any harvesting having been done there then. Eager as were those Samaritans to hear His doctrine and ready to confess Him the Messiah, no one outside of "Israel" seems to have been received in His flock at that time. On the contrary, it is recorded, (Acts viii. 14), that Samaria did not receive the gospel until several years had gone by. Why this discrimination? Why was the heathen centurion, who manifested greater faith than any Israelite, told to go his way? Matt. viii. 5-13. Why was he not commanded to forsake all, to come along and preach the gospel? Or, why was the Canaanitish woman received with apparent coldness in a manner that would have repulsed any person having no more than ordinary faith? Matt. xv. 22-28. These are noteworthy BOOK OF REVELATION 2 I instances, bearing ample testimony that the time for Gentile harvesting had not yet come; that the firstfruits to betaken out of Israel had not yet been fully gathered. The " hun- dred and forty and four thousand," be the number literal or figurative, had not yet all been sealed, a work that in God's plan and purpose must be done before the message of sal- vation could be dispensed among the nations abroad. Our Savior, when meeting His disciples just previous to His ascension, commissioned them " To go abroad in all the earth, preaching the gospel to all nations ;" [but], "to abide in Jerusalem till endued with power from on high," (Mark xvi. 15; Acts i. 4-13), a blessing they received on the day of Pentecost, when Holy Spirit filled them in a measure sufficient to stir up the whole city. Then, and not till then, could, in God's plan and purpose, the message of salvation through God's Anointed Lamb, be sent to all nations, and gather in the great multitude as seen by John in his vision, " Standing before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes with palms in their hands." Rev. vii. 9. " The law contained a shadow of good things to come," (Heb. x. i), and we cannot fail to see the most striking similarity; the law with its types and shadows being a mirror reflecting the glorious gospel substance. The paschal "firstfruit," the omer, or handful annually pre- sented to the Lord at passover time, did, as before stated, represent " Christ, Who is our passover," i Cor. v. 7; "and firstfruits of them that slept." i Cor. xv. 20. Then the pentecostal firstfruit, was presented to the LORD, baked with "leaven," contrary to all other offerings: and is not this type fully borne out, or anti-typified in the real literal fact? There were the holy, God-fearing remnant of Israel, the election, as Paul calls them, (Rom. xi. 7), from the giving of the law till our Savior ended His mission 22 STUDIES ON THE among them, continually being sealed, presented to the Lord as His chosen flock; that is, not only were they taught to know the will of God through His divinely pro- claimed law, but through it they realized their utter ina- bility to arrive at the LORD'S perfect standard by their own works; the best of them fell short of perfect law keeping as it is written : "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Rom. iii. 23. Hence, realizing their imperfection and shortcoming before God, they served Him with broken hearts and contrite spirits, (Ps. xxxiv. 18), ever looking to heaven for mercy; longing for the sin cleansing fountain to be opened in David's house, as predicted by the prophets; even Abraham, the friend of God, realized his lost con- dition, and rejoiced in hope of that blessed sin-cleansing day. John viii. 56. It is this condition of mind, this broken heart and con- trite spirit, manifesting itself in repentance from sin, and faith toward a merciful heaven, the only source of succor, that pleases God, and constitutes the seal placed upon His chosen flock, a circumcision of heart and ears, (Jer. iv. 4; Rom. ii. 28), whereof the fleshly circumcision was a type. It should be born in mind that all chosen ones of Israel, prior to the death of Christ, though thus sealed and selected as the LORD'S precious jewels, the perfection of Israel, lived and died without being washed, or in any manner cleansed from sin. Repentance from, or sorrow over sin, is not a cleansing from sin. Even though the penitent sinner could at once completely change his ways and never again commit an unlawful or carnal deed, his former committed misdeeds would still be crying against him; he would still be enrolled among sinners, the old debt contracted in violating law not having been paid; that work could only be done by the all atoning blood of BOOK OF REVELATION 23 Christ; hence, they were sealed but not redeemed, pre- sented to God indeed a leavened offering as typified in the pentecostal firstfruit, nor can we fail to see the striking resemblance in antitype, that pentecost must pass, the leavened offering be gathered and presented, ere the gos- pel, effecting the general ingathering among all nations could go forth and do its work. The apostle Peter stood in Solomon's porch, preaching salvation through the name of JESUS Anointed, to the marveling people said: "Unto you first," etc. Actsiii. 26. This expression, "unto you first," seems to convey the idea that Peter, even at that early day, understood that other nations should share the joyful tidings sent to Israel first, and we may wonder why they did not at once dispatch messengers to heathen lands. But their minds had to be trained into this new order of things. Our Lord, who does all things well, and never does anything in a hurry, gave them time to meditate on the matter, that the idea might fully mature in their minds, till finally, with a miracle in the ceturion's house atCesarea, convincing them that the season of firstfruit was now past, and the general ingathering should proceed. So deeply was the idea of Israel being God's first ingathering stamped on their minds, that even Paul, though specially com- missioned to work among Gentiles, always made it a point to preach to the Jews first, when getting within their hear- ing, (Acts xiii. 46), as also affirmed in his Roman letter : " To the Jew first, and also to the Greek." Rom. ii. 10. It is thus seen that the "hundred and forty and four thousand" sealed servants of God, of Rev. vii. 4-8, were Israel's faithful remnant: " Dying in faith, not having re- ceived the promises, but seeing them afar off, confessing themselves strangers and pilgrims in the earth, looking for 24 STUDIES ON THE a well founded City." Heb. xi. 13-16. " Sealed," but not " redeemed," but how shall this harmonize with Rev. xiv. 1-4, where the same "hundred and forty and four thousand" are seen, not merely "sealed" but "redeemed from among men, the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb." John, in Revelation v. i, saw the LORD God having in His right hand a book, that is a scroll, or rolled up sheet, written within and without, and sealed with seven seals. The apostle wept because neither man nor angel could open the book, or even look thereon. The Lamb then appeared, He who had been slain on behalf of sinful hu- manity, "Having loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; and therefore anointed with the oil of joy above His fellows," (Heb. i. 9), He took the book midst prayer, praise and heavenly worship, (verses 8-14). He opened one seal, when the gospel, in form of a crowned rider on a white horse, was seen going forth conquering, and to conquer. Rev. vi, i, 2. He opened another seal, a third and a fourth, gradually unrolling the scroll, showing the revelator what dreadful wars, tribulations, bloodshed and woe must accom- pany the gospel proclamation, (Rev. vi. 3-8), as also now verified in history. A fifth seal was opened and John saw the faithful martyrs, those slain in Old Testament times, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Heb. xi. 35. Their time had come, not to be raised, but to be clothed with long white robes, Rev. vi. 1 1, the metaphorical skin garment covering all humanity, typically constructed from animal skins in the garden of Eden, Gen. iii. 21, but antitypically, the flesh and blood of Christ, offered for fallen humanity, on. Mount Calvary; which could not be applied to martyrs in Old Testament times, because not then in existence. A sixth seal was broken and John saw time expired, and judgment at hand, BOOK OF REVELATION 25 (verses 12-17). Here the drama would seem as ended, but not so. Our Lord's beloved disciple shall yet be more fully initiated into God's holy oracles: thus far, he hath seen white robes, i. e., righteousness given to none but martyrs, not a word is said about the many thousand true worshipers of the LORD God, serving God with fervency and zeal, but not martyred, what of them ? Are they all lost ? Marvel upon marvel was disclosed to John : again he was brought back to Old Testament times, and saw God's faithful servants sealed ; again he saw the gospel go forth to all nations; and again, when the seventh seal was opened he saw the terrible trials and tribulations shown under the former seals, only now in a far more detailed manner. John was shown in detail the victory of our Lord's church amidst persecution and woe, (chapters xi. and xii.) ; also the abomination of the beast, with blasphemy on its seven heads, of which we shall speak hereafter. But let us refer again to chapter xiv. : there the reve- lator saw the "hundred and forty and four thousand," this time not merely sealed but redeemed, assuring him that his faithful fellow countrymen, whether king or prophet, rich or poor, high or humble, if only following the Lamb in obeying the law pointing to Him in types and shadows, were sharers in His redemption, though dead centuries before it was perfected. They were now before the throne of God, cleansed from sin by the all atoning blood of Christ, no guile being found in their mouths. We are not to un- derstand them resurrected and literally alive in God's presence, for they were then and are now sleeping in their tombs awaiting Gabriel's judgment call ; but before God who raises the dead, and calls the things that are not as though they were already existing, (Rom. iv. r;), they are seen as if alive; or, in other words, they are alive in the 26 STUDIES ON THE same sense that Abraham was the father of many nations when having no child. John having seen the " hundred and forty and four thousand" before the throne, redeemed, and having His name and their Father's name in their foreheads ; that is r no longer servants, but children of God, he sees the gospel, that "everlasting gospel," the glad tidings of eternal life, through Christ the Lamb, sent forth to all nations and kindreds, tongues and people. And now, dear reader, let us summarize these points. Prior to the death of Christ neither Samaritan nor Gentile had been called into the fold, to Israel, and to them only, sounded the blessed gospel call in that dispensation. Every year, on the great day of atonement, did they through their high priest present animal offerings, which, though types of Christ, served merely to keep their leavened, that is their sinful condition, in perpetual remembrance before God. Heb. x. 3. But'Christ came, redeeming all from the transgressions that were under the first covenant, Heb. ix. 15, hence, cleansing the hitherto leavened firstfruit of God, through His all atoning blood, before sending the gospel call to any other nation, precisely as seen in the great vision shown to John on Patmos. Several great object lessons were thus, in John's vision, printed on the charts of primitive Christian churches. Firstly : God's promise of blessing to Abraham and his seed stands firm; God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. He sealed the faithful remnant among them, and upon the fullness of time they were redeemed by the Lamb's blood. Secondly : The gospel call of " Peace on earth, and good will to men" shall not be confined to Israel, but shall BOOK OF REVELATION 2 7 go forth to all nations, tribes, and tongues. Israel was merely a firstfruit; the general harvest shall extend to all the earth. Thirdly : The beast, the Roman power, in John's day, headed by Nero, though, at that time persecuting the saints, and having the power to slay thousands of them, shall ultimately be conquered and slain, and victory shall be won by the people of God. The need of such exhor- tation and comfort to the early Christians is obvious, when we realize the terrible persecution against them, and re- member that the church of Jerusalem, though under Peter's direct leadership, was ever in favor of obeying and main- taining the whole Mosaic ritual. Acts xxi. 20. Paul coun- teracted this spirit of Judaism and antipathy against Gentile customs prevailing, even at Rome, saying: "If the firstfruit is holy, the lump is holy also; and if the root be holy, so are the branches." Rom. xi. 16. That this "root" or "firstfruit" signifies Israel, is very plain, it is also clear that Israel was the "firstfruit" as Jere- miah had said; James likewise testifies: "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." Jas. i. 18. Who did He begat to be a kind of "firstfraits?" Not all Christians, for that would include the whole harvest; but those to whom James wrote, namely, "the twelve tribes scattered abroad." Jas. i. i. Thus, prophets and apostles alike testify, that Israel, that is the elect remnant among them, were to be God's firstfruit or beginning of His harvest, and they can verily sing a song unlearned and unlearnable by other nations. Every saint can sing praise to the Lord for having been called into redemption from sin and pollution through the all cleansing blood of Christ; but to have stood in cove- 28 STUDIES ON THE nant relation with God, chosen and sealed prior to cleans- ing from sin can be sung by none but the faithful remnant of Israel, and will by them be sung and remembered through the endless ages of eternity. The great harvest of God being in this age gathered from all nations, anti-typifying the feast of tabernacles, though in Christ having like honor with Israel, may love that song but cannot sing it, because not belonging to the class having national pre-eminence. NOTE NOWHERE in the whole Levitical code did stiaw constitute any part of their offerings ; it seems therefore unreasonable that the LORD should command every farmer in Israel to carry a sheaf, or bundle of straw or unthrashed grain, up to the tabernacle once a year, only to be thrown away when getting there ; hence, the word " Sheaf," in Lev. xxiii. 10, is evidently a mistranslation, and should read : "omer, or, handful," as in the margin. The Danish Bible, now before me, likewise reads "omer. " BOOK OF REVELATION 29 CHAPTER III. "HEAVEN AND EARTH" "THE STARS" "THE WOMAN" "THE DRAGON AND " THE BOTTOMLESS PIT." IT has been stated by Bible students, that a man fully versed in the spirit of Old Testament writings has no real need of the New; and there is, although the statement may be somewhat presumptuous, a good deal of reason for its utterance. Moses, in his writings gives a history of events prior to his times; obtained either from books or tradition, and perhaps from both; aided, as our Heavenly Father's servants are and always have been, by direct holy spirit influence. The prophets quote Moses; while our Lord and His apostles, in their turn, quote both Moses and the prophets. Thus seeing the great " I AM", in His dealings with mankind, giving, through the different stages of revelation, "line upon line, precept - upon precept, little here and little there" ; (Isaiah xxviii. 10), always basing the latter upon the former, we accordingly conclude that the Apoca- lypse, the last book in the Bible; and among the last sacred books written; was likewise founded upon some earlier works. Nor could we ever feel sure of unraveling any of its, ever deep, metaphors, allegories, and symbols; unless finding some positive and plain, " thus saith the LORD", either in the book itself, or from some other sacred writer bearing on the same subject. 30 STUDIES ON THE Revelation xii. reads of "Heaven", "Earth", "Stars", "a woman", and "a dragon". Many theological writers see in all this nothing less than a literal celestial location, the abode of holy angels, "the war in heaven", of verse 7, they deem a literal battle among those holy dignitaries; resulting in the absolute defeat, and casting down upon earth, of some arch rebel; who, disobedient to God, and jealous of some rival angel, sought to usurp power, and have things his own way in all the heavenly realms; but, being conquered and cast out, he was given power on earth as a kind of omnipresent, never seen, evil deity, called in common every day language "the devil". The absurdity of such position is at once apparent from verse 2 : " The woman in heaven gave birth to a man child". The angels of God in the literal heavenly abode, "neither marry, nor are given in marriage", Luke xx. 35; hence, do not bring forth children ; therefore a different solution must be found. In holy writ, " stars" are often used metaphorically. Joseph saw his brethren do obeisance to him in the form of stars. Gen. xxxvii. 9. Theological leaders, or evan- gelists, turning men to righteousness, are in Dan. xii. 3, likened unto "stars"; likewise in Dan. viii. 10, holy men are called "stars". But we have, within the book (Rev.) itself, a more direct, and therefore surer proof. "The seven stars in my right hand are the seven angels, bishops, or messengers, of the seven churches". Rev. i. 20. Even Balaam, when, against his will, driven to utter blessings on Israel, called our Savior a "Star out of Jacob". Num. xxiv. 17. It being thus evident that a star, in the Revelator's language, signifies a theological leader, or holy man of BOOK OF REVELATION 31 more or less pre-eminence; and these in Dan. viii. 10, as also in our text are called "hosts" or "stars" of heaven; we need not be at a loss about the term "heaven"; but can readily see it signifies, not a location, but a condition of sanctification or holiness, enjoyed by all now redeemed by the blood of our Heavenly Father's spotless lamb; in whatsoever age they lived. "The first man was of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven", (i Cor. xv. 47, (not that He, Christ, came down from the heavenly portals; but being divinely begotten, He was, although the son of Mary, of heavenly origin, and is justly called " the Lord from heaven". Hence, when in Revelation, we see a "star" falling from heaven, we understand it signifies that a holy person has fallen from grace, or backslidden; lost his heavenly image, or condition of holiness; unto which he through faith had attained, and has relapsed into the image of the earthly man, from whom he originally sprang. Hebrews xii. 22, informs us that the saints of God redeemed by the blood of Christ, have, although scattered far and wide upon the earth, "Come unto the mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem"; not, as all can see, a location, but a condition. This heaven, this condition of purity and freedom from sin, is likewise contained in our Savior's words to the thief: "This "day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise", (Luke xxiii. 43, for let it be remembered that Paradise, that is, the con- dition from which Adam fell when eating the forbidden fruit, was regained the moment Christ expired; and they were both in it; though for the time being both dead; and the malefactor is still dead. The church of God, the Lamb's bride, is the woman in heaven, to her it was said: " Rejoice greatly, O daughter 32 STUDIES ON THE of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee : He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass". Zech. ix. 9. This metaphorical woman was indeed with child, traveled in birth, and pained to be delivered; the faithful ones of the LORD on earth, were, from the moment sin first entered the world, ever groaning in pain, and longing for the appearance of the woman's seed to crush the serpent's head. The blood offerings of Israel setting forth in type the hope of a coming Redeemer, are traced back to faithful Abel, (Gen. iv. 4), and even further, for animal blood must have flown when a skin covering was procured for Adam and Eve. Gen. iii. 21. "Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ; and he saw it [by faith, though far off],, and was glad." John viii. 56. Not only did the blood offerings of Israel fore-shadow the Savior's death, but the sweetest theme of their songs was their expected Messianic kingdom; while all their prophets from Samuel onward, as many as followed after predicted the birth of their deliverer. (Acts iii. 22-24). As the desire of a woman, yearning to embrace her off- spring, increases with the nearness of the event, so did in Israel the intense desire to see their promised Redeemer. Year after year their offerings were continued, and their songs repeated, anxiety and longing to see their promised King, filled every God-fearing heart. When would their "star" arise? Should they, 'ere that day, sleep in death? or would they live to see Him? Then it was revealed to old God-fearing Simeon, that his eyes, 'ere closing in death, "would see the Lord's anointed". Luke ii. 26. BOOK OF REVELATION 33 Aged Anna, when, in the temple, seeing the infant child, instantly recognizes in Him the promised Redeemer; and, giving thanks to God, spoke of Him to all who looked for redemption in Israel. Luke ii. 38. Truly did the woman travail in birth, and pained to be delivered. " She brought forth a man-child, to rule all nations with a rod of iron : and [who, having finished His work on earth], was caught away to God, and His throne." Rev. xii. 5. How significant the expression " God, and His throne." Merely saying, "caught away to heaven," would not ex- press it; for heaven, in apocalyptical language, signifies, as we have seen, the condition of God's church on earth, in which our Savior was born; hence, the expression: " God, and His throne," fully stating our Savior's ascension to the Father's immediate presence. As also written by the prophet: "He came to the Ancient of days; and they brought Him near before Him." Dan. vii. 13. The woman had on her head a crown of twelve stars. Twelve great men, our Lord's twelve apostles, diadems. Not on the women's vesture, but on her head; being indeed rulers in our Lord's church ; and, through their work, reigning on earth, even now, as kings and priests with God and the Lamb, though literally sleeping in the dust of the earth. The woman was clothed with the sun ; that is, sur- rounded, literally enrobed, with the glory of God; and the moon was under her feet; for as the moon receives all its light from the sun, so does the whole world wherever civilization reaches, receive all its light of blessings from the church of Christ. Comparing Christian lands with heathen lands, what a wonderful spectacle do we behold : asylums for the sick, 3 34 STUDIES ON THE the aged, the feeble, the insane, or the needy from what- soever cause, are, though never seen in heathen lands, ever fostered and flourishing within the bounds of gospel domain. How eagerly does the infidel, who all his life has ridiculed the church of Christ, blasphemed His holy name, and shunned the Book, the Bible, written for the blessing of mankind through holy Spirit guidance, seek an asylum, founded on the very spirit of that Book, and through its ever pressing influence, when perchance he gets old and feeble or otherwise in need of succor. As our Heavenly Father maketh His sun rise over the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust; so does the church of Christ JESUS, our Lord and blessed Redeemer shed forth her blessings upon all man- kind within her reach, whether they accept her teachings or not; though, be it freely admitted, all not willing to come to her loving embrace through faith in the death and resurrection of our Lord JESUS Anointed, can get her blessings only second-hand, metaphorically as moonlight; and as moonlight is better than no light at all, so is the condition enjoyed by even the infidel in Christian lands, far preferable to that of the heathen barbarism, in lands of darkness not yet blessed by gospel light. The moon is under the woman's feet. Yes! truly so. Where, within the realms of Christianity, does any man dare to come out in open defiance of God's law regulating the duties of man to man ? Even polygamy, one of the Cain family is most beastly inventions, can nowhere thrive within church domain ; but must blast and wither under the powerful influence of our Savior's church light. And thus, with all manner of gross crimes, every man and woman living within the bounds of any Christian land, is, even though frequently hating Christianity, and blaspheming the BOOK OF REVELATION 35 name of its founder, compelled, by political law and social customs, to abstain from open committal of gross acts for- bidden by church edict, and made to lead lives of decency in conformity with Bible law. Indeed, the woman has the moon under her feet. There is a class of men and women in society, particu- larly in our large cities, not only tolerating, but openly approving of acts condemned by the word of God, but who are as a class, generally ostracised by decent society, considered one strata below the common social level, and known in the revelator's language as the "bottomless pit," of this something will be said later on. THE DRAGON. A MONSTER with seven heads and ten homes. Formers of theological sects seem to forget when making out this dragon to be their fancied bugbear, the ruler of their imaginary place of torment, called hell ; their personal devil, has only one head, while this apocalyptical dragon has seven ; though it is nowhere even intimated, that he, when being cast from heaven to earth was in any measure decapitated ; nor could it well be supposed that an angel in heaven ever had more than one head. It is furthermore declared by two competent witnesses, that "the angels who sinned are reserved in chains until the judgment-day." 2 Pet. ii. 4, and Jude 6. And Paul, the great Gentile apostle, evidently referred to the same thing when saying, "we shall judge angels. " i Cor. vi. 3. It is plain from these statements, that the fallen angels being bound with chains, whatever binding that expression may mean, and reserved until the day of judgment, have 36 STUDIES ON THE nothing in common with the revelator's "seven headed dragon," who though cast out of heaven, retained full liberty on earth to persecute the woman and her seed. This hydra-headed monster is something entirely different from the fallen angels mentioned by Paul, Peter and Jude. Nor could it for a moment be supposed by sane intelligent men, that a literal battle should take place among God's holy angels. It is indeed strange that men even in our enlightened age, professing to be instructed from God's holy word, and having more or less knowledge of our heavenly Father's divine attributes, and the sublime purity of His heavenly courts, should so far forget themselves as to admit that envy, hatred, strife, or even literal warfare should enter there : thus making our heavenly Father's kingdom and throne in reality no better than this sin be- sotten world, for if such a thing could happen once among the heavenly angels, it might perchance happen again; or, if not, why not? Verse 1 1 gives us a clue to the revelator's idea. " The dragon, that old serpent called the devil and satan," was conquered by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and by yielding their lives as martyrs. And it may be asked when stepping aside from meta- phor and using plain open language, what monster enemy of mankind was fought and conquered by those weapons? Answer : Sin, and sin only by virtue of a broken law condemning all mankind to eternal perdition, until our Savior appeared and paid the ransom. Sin it was that "accused our brethren day and night before God," Heb. ii. 14; Rev. xii. 10: and sin it was that was cast out of heaven, not out of any celestial locality, but out of the church of Christ here on earth, when our Savior ransomed her with His own blood; and bade His chosen followers BOOK OF REVELATION 37 proclaim the glad tidings to all nations; as they also did, sealing their testimony with their blood. Why should man fail to see the true meaning of this? " Serpents " all through the word of God are used as an emblem of sin; Moses in the wilderness lifted up a serpent, an emblem of our Savior on the cross. John iii. 14. The Mosaic serpent, the typical redeemer, healed them from literal serpent bites; hence, sin, from which our Savior redeemed us, is the antitypical serpent, It is written : "The seed of the woman shall biuise the serpent's head." Gen. iii. 15 " Ye generation of vipers. " Matt. iii. 7, " Ye are of your father the devil, and his works ye will do." John viii. 44. "Dragon," " satan," "serpent," "devil," are scripture expressions signifying one and the same thing, namely, "sin in the flesh" with its fearful consequences. * " Out of the heart proceedeth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, : these are they which defile man." Matt. xv. 19, 20. " The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." Gal. v. 17. " Because the carnal mind is enmity against God : for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be." Rom. viii. 7. " Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin ; and sin, when it hath finished, bringeth forth death." Jas. I. 14, 15. " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ, Himself, likewise, took part of the same ; that through death He might render him powerless, (translated from the Greek), who has the power of death, that is the devil, (/'. e. accuser); and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Heb. ii. 14, 15. * Readers desiring light on this, so much controverted point, "the devil", as mentioned in the Bible, should write to the EUSKBIA Publishing Co., 509 Walsworth Ave., Oakland, Cal., for tract on this subject. 38 STUDIES ON THE That bondage, that fear of death, is now, thanks to redeeming power of our Savior's cross, forever abolished for those who through faith in our Heavenly Father's sin- bearing Lamb, have become the children of God. " With His stripes we are healed." Isa. liii. 5. Well then might our Lord say : " He~that believeth in Me shall never see death." John viii. 52, and xi. 25, 26. This has no reference to natural dying; from it men are not exempt : but to death absolute in the penal sense, in- flicted at the judgment, and from which our Savior re- deemed all that accept and obey Him. This freedom from sin unto death eternal : this deliver- ance from bondage, into the glorious liberty of divine son- ship, is consummated when by faith in the efficacy of the death of Christ, we put it on by immersion, as Paul says : " As many of us as have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into'His death." Rom. vi. 3. And again : " As many of us as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. V Gal. iii. 27. And again : "If one has died for all, then have they all died." 2 Cor. v. 14. It is thus evident that we, having died with Christ, can no longer, by the broken law, in which lies the power of sin, (i Cor. xv. 56), be accused before God, as we were both day and night 'ere the work of redemption was ac- complished. The debt to the broken law having been paid, we are no longer accused as law breakers not under law,Jbut under grace. BOOK OF REVELATION 39 THE SEVEN HEADS. How CAN sin or its power be said to have heads and horns? Sin, the ever accusing dragon, got into heaven when our first parents sinned. They were created in the image of God; not bearing that image in fullness of glory, because they knew not good from evil, but having received the edict: " Thou shalt not eat;" and being granted free access to the tree of life, they were, by virtue of this their covenant, related to eternal life. Not that anything taken into their stomachs could in reality change their mortal constitutions. Christ is the only true bread of life, as well for Adam as for any other man : but as Adam was a type of Christ, (Rom. v. 14), we readily comprehend the whole Edenic picture a type of God's dealing with man in the law and gospel dispensations: hence, applicable in apoca- lyptical vision as placing our first parents in the image of God, and thus in the apocalyptical heaven. The garden of Eden with its trees, as pictured in Genesis, may or may not have been wholly literal : the serpent narrative is certainly a metaphor; but whether literal or metaphorical, it has served as foundation of all subsequent Bible writings, and hence, underlies the great vision of John on Patmos. From this point of view we behold Adam and Eve in the garden : their condition of innocence with a promise before them of never ending life, was one of bliss, indeed it was heaven : so far at least as their condition of undeveloped mentality could compre- hend. When lo and behold, the forbidden tree was ap- proached, and its fruit consumed : at once their con- science smites: seeing their nakedness they sought to cover it: and hide when hearing the voice of Him who had set the penalty of death before them. 4Q STUDIES ON THE A covering of skins for their shame, symbolical of a sin covering was now provided : but it, though covering their shame, did not take it away. As the accusation of a broken law stands against any criminal until his sentence is expiated; so in their case. The accusation "Thou hast eaten," was ever against them and us day and night before God : and it was this ever accusing dragon our Savior con- quered and cast out of the apocalyptical heaven when He paid the penalty of sin on the cursed tree. Gal. iii. 13. Man was now driven from the tree of life, (Gen. iii. 24), but, being expelled from the garden, he was also away from the tree of knowledge : that is, left without divine guidance or law to rule his passions : and thus, unguided, he sank deeper and deeper in the mire of immorality and degradation, till every imagination and thought of his heart was a continuous chain of wiclpedness, (Gen. vi. 5), when a righteous God destroyed them all, save Noah and his family. Gen. vii. 21. Again, man increased and filled the earth as com- manded : and again sin, the ever accusing dragon ruled as before. Spreading abroad from Shinar land to all corners of the earth, they soon forgot the fearful lesson taught to all mankind in Noah's time : and forgetting the Creator, worshiped the creatures as gods. Particularly was Egypt the seat of idolatry as seen from the word of God to Moses: "I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. " Ex. xii. 12. Thither the Patriarch Jacob and his sons journeyed in search of food, when finding the land of the Hebrews void of sustenance. A warm welcome was accorded them : because Pharaoh stood at that time in particular need of Joseph's service : but sin is never grateful. Joseph died and was forgotten. Then the yoke was placed on Abra- BOOK OF REVELATION 4! ham's offspring, the only people on earth at that time in covenant relation with God; and they were persecuted even beyond endurance. Persecuted by whom ? By a monarchical government, or crowned head of sin; hence, a dragon head: and the first dragon head ever mentioned in history as persecuting God's people. Hear haughty Pharaoh : " Who is the LORD, that I shall obey His voice?" Ex. v. 2. The dragon never appears in form of a false prophet with a lying, "Thus saith the Lord." His speech is always, " The Lord never said so." Thus reasoned the carnal-serpent-mind of the woman in the garden : " Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat. " Gen. iii. i. Thus, in Pharoah, as we have seen: Thus, in Nebu- chadnezzar, when erecting an image, that all men, under penalty of death, must worship ; he actually exalted him- self as a maker of God : and therefore above God. Thus, the Roman emperors, when in early Christian times, their images were erected and worshiped in all parts of Roman territory. And thus it shall be in the latter days; when the man of sin, mentioned by Paul, shall be fully developed : " He who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped." 2 Thess. ii. 4. Having located Egypt, the first dragon head, we can follow the history of Israel, and the prophecies concerning them, and thus locate the other six dragon heads, or mon- archies oppressing God's people. " For thus said the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrians 42 STUDIES ON THE oppressed them without a cause. " Isaiah Hi. 4. Every one knows that the ten tribes were conquered and carried cap- tive by the Assyrians under Shalmaneser. In Daniel ii. there appears an image of four different minerals representing four separate kingdoms : each of whom, in its time oppressed the people of God, and hence, were dragon heads. But, some one might observe, " four" in Daniel and "two" in Isaiah, make six only, where then the seventh ? Let us see. John saw the dragon with seven heads in heaven prior to his expulsion into the earth; and as this expulsion took place when our Savior was crucified we must find seven heathen monarchies oppressing God's people in Old Testa- ment times, and they do appear in plain and open history. Daniel in his vision, described in chapter viii., saw a little horn spring from one division of the he-goat, [/. e. Alexander's empire], who " waxed great, even to the host of heaven ; and cast some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them," etc. Dan. viii. 10. That this refers to the Syrian power with Antiochus Epiphanes their king: under whose sacreligious tryanny the Maccabees sprang into power, and wrought such won- derful deliverance in Israelis too evident for comment: and is without doubt referred to by Ezekiel chapter xxxviii, as "Gog and Magog." Counting Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, (under Alexander), Syria, (under Antiochus), and Rome. We have seven heads, all fully developed and crowned prior to our Savior's time. Rome was, even at that time, considerably divided; and might well, even at that early day, be designated as ten horns. Those di- visions were nevertheless in full subjection under the Roman emperors, and therefore not crowned in the full BOOK OF REVELATION 43 sense of that word, as they afterward were, when warring against, and fully revolting from, the Roman imperial scepter. The reader will notice that the dragon picture of chapter xii., has. crowns upon its heads, while the beast in chapter xiii., has crowns on its horns, evidently showing the Roman people fully divided, each province being a separate nation wholly governing its own affairs, as seen in Dan. vii. 24. THE DRAGON'S TAIL. THE dragon, although seven headed, has only one tail : but with it, and it only, has he power to do any real injury to God's people. " The dragon stood before the woman ready to devour her child as soon as it was born." Rev. xii. 4. Well may we here see the plan of Herod, at that time Roman governor, hence, representing the seventh dragon head, to murder the infant JESUS. Matt. ii. 7-16. His plan was frustrated by divine interference; nor have we in any part of the revelator's vision the least intimation of any real harm coming to God's people through any or all of the monster's heads. But " his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." That is : the dragon's tail caused holy men to backslide, to fall from their condition of holiness, or heavenly image, and relapse or sink back to the image of the earthly Adam, from whom they had, by faith in God, under either the Old or New covenant been severed. But, asks the inquiring mind, why is this evil, this de- structive work allotted to the tail ? What does the word tail signify? We read in Isaiah ix. 15, that a " prophet teaching lies, is the tail." 44 STUDIES ON THE All familiar with history knows that a host of false prophets, always attended, or, we may say, hung on like a tail to a beast, to those above mentioned dragon heads. They were in Egypt in persons of "Jannes and Jambres. " Ex. vii. n, 12; 2 Tim. iii. 8. We find them in Babylon in the form of soothsayers and magicians. Dan. ii. 2. That they attended Rome, the seventh head, is clear from i John v. 21, " Little children, keep yourselves from the idols." Even the land of Israel had, in the time of Jezebel, be- come so overrun with lying prophets that the people halted between two opinions, not knowing whether to serve the LORD or Baal, i Kings xviii. 21. That these lying teach- ers, this dragon's tail, caused many of God's people to err, to fall from grace, and lose eternal life, is also too well known. Not even Solomon, blessed as he was with spiritual gifts, was able to withstand their craft, but fell through the influences of his heathen wives, (see i Kings xi. 4-11), and he, a man having power over nations, and direct revelation from God. What then might be expected from men less favored of God; and often pressed by heathen rulers to either deny the LORD, or lose their lives; as e. g. Daniel's three friends when cast into the fiery furnace. No wonder then that John saw the dragon tail an instrument of terror. It was, alas too often the cause of God's people falling from heaven to earth, which all the dragon heads combined were unable to effect, for even if taking their lives, there remained unto God's people a resurrection into a better life with a crown never fading. " Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : but fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in gehenna. " Matt. x. 28. Rome, the last dragon head, stung the woman's seed in BOOK OF REVELATION 45 his heel; a wound painful indeed, but not fatal. That is, death was inflicted on our great Redeemer, but a power stronger than death rent the prison walls and set Him free. Yea, more than that, gave Him the keys of hades and death. Rev. i. 18. " My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them to Me, is is greater than all : and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." John x. 28, 29. Not all the roaring from the mouths of seven dragon heads, were they open simultaneously, could pluck one sheep from our Lord's life-giving hand : but woe unto that star who falls into the coil of the monster's tail: that is, becomes ensnared in the meshes of lying prophets, is car- ried off with false, God-deserting doctrines, caused to leave the true faith once delivered unto the saints, and be per- verted into believing another gospel; or, to lead a life contrary to sound doctrine, and in rebellion to God's law. " For unto such, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin ; They have crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." Heb. vi. 6. "Ye shall not surely die." Gen. iii. 4. This coil of the dragon tail, this lying prophecy, the product of her own indwelling serpent, lust in the flesh, seduced our mother Eve. She and her husband were the first falling stars; and, alas ! for humanity, thousands have followed in their wake. I am not here claiming that our first parents lost eterna life. Redemption extends to all, and our Lord, the judge of all flesh, knows who are His. 46 STUDIES ON THE THE WOMAN IN THE WILDERNESS. " THE woman fled to the wilderness, where she was nour- ished for a time, times, and a half, away from the face of the serpent." Verse 14. Not here endeavoring to establish extension or terminals of symbolic times, which are best unraveled when all these things shall have been fulfilled; we may be free to say that the woman had dwelt in Jerusalem ever since David brought the ark of God thither, 2 Sam. vi. 17, excepting, perhaps the seventy years captivity. Our Savior informed them that these things were to be changed, that the time was approaching when no particular place for worship should be designated: that God should be "worshiped everywhere in spirit and in truth." See John iv. 20-24. In accordance with that fact, our Lord commanded His disciples to preach the gospel to all nations, as they also did, sealing their testimony by their blood. And as the LORD had, in Moses time, " carried the woman on eagles' wings," that is, by miraculous power manifested through His servants, Moses and Aaron, " and brought her unto Himself," Ex. xix. 4, so did He in early days of the apos- tles, when likewise manifesting His power, so gloriously through His only begotten Son, and also through His apostles, carry her similarly on eagles' wings, and bring her into the wilderness; that is, scatter her among all nations: a scattering fully consummated when Jerusalem was de- stroyed. But even in this, her scattered condition, she was nourished; for remember, our Lord's promise: "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there will 1 be in their midst." Matt, xviii. 20. BOOK OF REVELATION 47 The serpent cast a flood out of his mouth to swallow up the woman; but the earth, i. e. the so called better class of society, the moral, though unchristianized, part of man- kind; who, though led by either, a false gospel, or rank atheism; hence, by virtue of the "moonlight from under the woman's feet," learned to sympathize with, and respect everything noble and lowly among men, have continually been helping the people of God, when edict after edict from the dragon's lips have endeavored to cause their extinction. Of this early history of Christianity gives ample proof. Well might the woman tremble when Jerusalem fell; her central location was now gone; her council chamber, if we so shall speak, being demolished, she had no where to turn for advice, or edict in settlement of church turmoil. It was at this hour of consternation that she, through the beloved John, saw on Patmos, this wonderful revelation assuring her of nourishment and support of life even in the wilderness, as we now also for more than eighteen cen- turies have seen it. Had the woman in early Christian centuries, when the dragon was in its bitterest mood of spirit, been confined to one city or one province, the serpent might easily, by mere force of arms, have wrought her ruin. But she was every- where, and yet as in a wilderness, found no where; because her members when persecuted in one city fled to another, thus literally keeping away from the face of the serpent. Many of God's people lost their lives in this persecution, as predicted in verse 17. But even that worked to the glory of God, and thus literally nourished the woman. The dragon's connection with the battle of Aimageddon in Rev. xvi. 16, will be found touched upon in a later chapter. 48 STUDIES ON THE THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. REVELATION xx. 1-3, presents "the dragon as bound for a thousand years," "shut up in the bottomless pit." Much speculation has been indulged in by theological writers about this thousand years. Several branches of Adventists are particularly sanguine in their anticipation of a millen- nium prior to the day of Judgment, with our Lord person- ally present on earth to direct affairs; as if He were not able fully to control matters while seated in heaven. Much controversy has been carried on among theolo- gians about the nature or personality of satan, as also about the thousand years; but, whatever their views on these questions, they all fail to locate the bottomless pit. Not even Canon Cook, the latest commentator, though quoting from nearly every writer in all the history of Chris- tendom, has been able to obtain any opinion, much less,, light on the subject. Without here endeavoring to refute any of these un- scriptural claims about the binding of a personal satan, and establishment of a fancied millennium, I freely affirm, and shall prove, that "satan" is now "bound," and in the bottomless pit. A child once asked : Grandma, what does this earth rest on ? It rests on a great big rock. And what does that rock rest on? It rests on another, still bigger rock. But, persisted the youngster, On what does that rock rest? The old lady, puzzled beyond her wits, yet too dignified to admit of ignorance, silenced him by, "O! you little fool, it is rocks all the way down." With our twentieth century knowledge of geography and astronomy, one smiles at the reply; but must nevertheless- BOOK OF REVELATION 49 rest assured that neither John on Patmos nor any of his contemporaries, were able to form any clearer conception of the matter. To them the earth was flat, resting on a foundation, the heavens a canopy resting on the earth; and beneath the earth was the " abussos," bottomless, or, more literal, unsearchable, incomprehensible pit. Such a pit existing nowhere except in ancient imagination, a literal devil can not be cast in there; what then does it mean? Bear in mind, dear reader, that we are in the book of symbols. We have seen above, that heaven in the apocalypse signifies that condition of holiness and purity enjoyed by the children of God here on earth, i. e. the church of Christ. Below them, on the next social level, stands another class of people, who are, as a whole good peace-loving citizens in whatever land they dwell. They may or may not be church members. They may, deluded by a coun- terfeit gospel, consider themselves children of God ; or they may, in rank infidelity, ridicule Christ and His church ; yet with no intention or aim of doing it any harm. They are sober, industrious, tolerably honest in dealing with their fellow men; and generally do all in their power to promote the good of society as the years roll by. They constitute the apocalyptical earth. Below them stands, or perhaps we should say, lies another social strata, another class of men and women, whose ears are ever deaf to anything ele- vating or moral; their one and only aim is to serve their own carnal lust, no matter how much their fellow man may suffer in consequence. Saloons, gambling houses, brothels, dance houses, and all other imaginable or unimaginable dens of vice are their places of continual resort. The name of God never passes their lips except in profanity; their 4 50 STUDIES ON THE every thought is as low, degraded, and filthy as thoughts of man possibly can become. To them the revelator's term bottomless pit, is indeed well fitted. In that degenerate society, or bottomless pit, the devil has, and always will, till the end of time, have full sway. God did not say, "Ye shall not eat," Gen. iii. i. Such was the dragon's sweet sounding lie in the garden of Eden; and such is his delusive language in the bottomless pit to-day. Every person knows that the chief or perhaps the only ex- cuse those people can frame for continuing their wretched mode of life, is, that God, if there is a God, never said anything about what men shall, or shall not do. They have no religion, and they want none ; hence, not even the false prophet, who, with all his lying, does teach men some good, is able to live in their midst; much less the true witness of God; they are wholly and fully given over to the dragon, ever opposing Christ. Acts of violence, or gross crime of any kind, not only tolerated but approved oft' in this "pit," are openly con- demned by decent society in all lands of Christendom. Our gubernatorial seats, our legislative halls, our courts of justice, our social circles, and last, but not least, our social or political press : the most potent factor in shaping public opinion, are all pure compared with what is ever perpe- trated in the bottomless pit. Not that society is absolutely pure, far from it, much evil and many defects are there. But noble, heroic, and philanthropic deeds are ever praised, practised, and held in the highest esteem in this kingdom of morality, while lawlessness and base deeds are openly condemned, and their practitioners always ostracised by that that class of people. To say that satan, in the full sense of that word, is ruling, or is even tolerated among them, would be an undeserved charge, indeed a gross in- BOOK OF REVELATION 51 suit. Open society is not satanic. Satan is only tolerated in the pit. But it may be asked, do not many of our leading men, even among the clergy, practise on the sly what they openly condemn ? To their shame be it said, that many social, political, or even clerical leaders, are in this way guilty of gross conduct; but they are, thus far, members of, and dwellers in the bottomless pit. Paul, that "great star in the heavens," warns us against the works of this pit : " Have no fellowship with the un- fruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame to even speak of those things which are done of them in secret." Eph. v. n, 12. It is a fact, as joyful as undeniable, that actions as those here alluded to by Paul are condemned by public opinion, anathematized by the ever watchful public press, and can only be perpetrated in the dark, i. e. in the pit. It is freely admitted that millions of individuals are, even now, in the clutches of satan, and thereby deceived; but whole nations in Christendom are not. Any nation recognizing God and our Lord Christ JESUS as its heads, which all nations in Europe and America do, is no longer deceived by satan. Let it be noted that the binding of satan and making him powerless as a deceiver of nations, does not take away his power to deceive individuals. See Rev. xx. 3. We are by the revelator informed that satan shall, after a thousand years' confinement, be liberated from his prison, and again go forth to deceive the nations. Rev. xx. 7-9. It is unreasonable to look upon the thousand, which occurs no where but in Revelation, as a literal number, seeing all else in that book is metaphorical and symbolical, of this I expect to say more later on. 52 STUDIES ON THE By what means this diabolical loosening shall be ac- complished we have no means of knowing. A sug- gestion that may be to the point is, that the eventually unavoidable amalgamation of Asiatic hordes with our American nation that will tend to such result, nor are such fears by any means groundless; for we must remember that China is still a dragon power, the last nation of any note to admit the light of Christianity; and, peculiarly enough, the dragon is her national emblem. Such social disturbances are however to be feared only here in America, and mostly on its western coast, but the dragon shall, when loosed from the pit, deceive all nations in the earth. See Re.v. xx. 7-9. Not here undertaking any prognostication, I am free to call the reader's attention to a doctrine, if indeed doctrine we may call it, prominent in our age, known as Agnosti- cism. The spirit of Atheisnv no God-ism, seems to dwin- dle away and die; but Agnosticism, admitting simply the existense of a God, wholly unknown and unknowable, is gaining foothold at an alarming rate, in all lands and all classes. The agnostic admits that Christ was a good man; but scorns the idea of divine begettal. He admits that the bible contains many valuable precepts for human conduct, but rejects the idea of inspiration, thereby overthrowing the whole fabric as having come from God, thus plainly and positively stating the Eden satanic lie, that God never laid down any precept for the conduct of men. That doc- trine is, as said before, fast gaining ground among men, and should the time come, as it doubtless will, when the nations as a whole shall embrace and embody it in their legislation, then satan will no longer be in the pit. Certain it is that agnosticism is in all respects a dragon doctrine; for the dragon did not deny the existence of a God. but BOOK OF REVELATION 53 simply prevailed upon mother Eve to believe that God had not said: "Ye shall not eat." In concluding this chapter I cannot forbear to warn the reader not to worry about literal seven-headed dragons, with a multitude of horns, drawing literal stars from heaven to earth ; but if you, dear reader, be a star in the theo- logical heaven, no matter of what magnitude, beware lest some dragon tail, some lying prophet entwine and cast you from' heaven to earth, i. e. from thy state of grace, down to unbelief and ruin. 54 STUDIES ON THE CHAPTER IV. " THE GREAT HARLOT SITTING UPON MANY WATERS. " REVELATION XVII, XVIII. JOHN saw a woman upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, and having the usual apocalyptical symbol, " seven heads and ten horns." The dragon of chapter xii. has crowns on its heads. The beast of chapter xiii. has crowns upon its horns, while the beast carrying the harlot has no crowns, at least none are mentioned by the writer. Another noteworthy difference is that the beast of chapter xiii. has the name or names of blasphemy simply on its nead, but the beast of our text is full of names, not merely on its heads, but apparently covered with them all over. The fulfillment of this prophecy being, in part at least, still future, we can not fully describe the beast. As, how- ever we live in an age when monarchies tremble, and re- publics seem to be the most approved form of government, we may logically conclude that this beast, though, as we shall see, taking in all the ancient world powers, also reaches down towards the latter End of time, when mon- archies will either wholly disappear or be limited by the most stringent constitutions: by these make every man a lawmaker through the power of his vote, and thus throw the responsibility for blasphemy, /. e. social and political evil of all kinds, not on the king, as in days of old, but on BOOK OF REVELATION 55 every voting inhabitant of the land. Hence, the names of blasphemy are covering the whole beast; and crowns, if there were any, are wholly ignored, as indeed to-day, the king of the larger number of kingdoms is merely a figure- head; bound under oath to respect the laws enacted by the people. WHO IS THIS WOMAN ? COMMENTATORS differ here as everywhere. Most of them quote nearly every obtainable opinion, and give no certain view of their own; thus making a bulky book with no cer- tain result. Adventists, as a rule, claim the woman to be the Roman Catholic church; others, that she was the Roman empire. Both views are wrong as we shall see. "The seven heads are seven mountains," verse 9, A mountain in prophetic language signifies a kingdom. Isaiah ii. 2, and xi. 9; and Micah iv. i, as also said by the angel in [Rev.] verse 10, "they are seven kings," or, which mean the same thing, " seven kingdoms." " Thou art this head of gold." Dan. ii. 38. Not that Nebuchadnezzar ac- tually was the head, but representing the gold kingdom he is called the head; and so in Rev xvii. 10, seven kings stand for seven kingdoms. THE SEVEN HEADS. FIVE were fallen when John, escorted by the angel, saw the vision, and knowing from Daniel, chapter vii., that a beast signifies a world power, we need not be long in locat- ing them.. They are simply synonymous with the dragon heads of chapter xii, vis.: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo- Persia, Greece, and Rome. This excludes the Syrians under Antiochus Epiphanes; but as that power was really 56 STUDIES ON THE a part of Greece and is omitted in Nebuchadnezzar's vision, as also in Daniel's vision of chapter vii. ; there is no reason why it should not be omitted here. The first five had fallen and Rome was there. One head was still to come and continue a short space. Such a head did come when the Mahometans invaded Europe, and persecuted the Christians with as much vehemence as was ever dis- played against the people of God by any beast of old. But whatever conclusion we may come to about the seventh head, or any head, it is plain that the harlot is something sitting on all those powers in their successive turns of do- minion; and is therefore neither the Catholic church, nor pagan Rome. "Reward her as she has rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her work : in the cup she has filled fill to her double. " Rev. xviii. 6. Are we to suppose a righteous God is calling on His children to double unto the catholic church what she has done in days of yore? Shall protestants hold inquisitions and burn catholics or pagans of Rome or any other city, as supposed heretics have formerly been burned by catho- lics, or pagans of Rome? If so, what of our Savior's precept to His chosen followers : " to turn the left cheek when struck on the right ?" " Vengeance belongs to God ;" and He will, through His glorified Son, our just Redeemer, see to those things in the great reckoning day. " In her" the harlot, " was found the blood of prophets, and of the saints, and of all that were slain in the earth. " Rev. xviii. 24. What thinking man would for a moment apply this to either pagan Rome or the catholic church? They were both bad enough, but to charge them either separately or collectively with all the innocent blood shed in the earth, is rank folly, as that includes even Abel's: slain thousands BOOK OF REVELATION 57 of years before either of those powers existed. The harlot on the beast is a symbol covering far more time and space than ever occupied by pagan Rome and the catholic church together. It covers all the earth and all time from creation till the judgment day. We must here, as elsewhere in Revelation, look for light in the sacred writings of earlier date. "No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but the holy men of old spoke as moved by holy spirt." 2 Pet. i 20, 21. That being true of Old Testament prophecy is much more so of the great vision on Patmos; nor have we the slightest reason for believing that John, in any great measure comprehended what he saw, except so far as guided by earlier writings or direct explanation. He would, if possessing abundant light on these subjects have explained them to his contemporaries, but it is a noteworthy fact, that early Christian writers were as much in the dark on those things as writers of later centuries, even more so, because history of the Christian era explains apocalyptical events unperceived by writers of earlier days. Daniel was by direct revelation able to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream. (Dan. ii.) : but could, even after that event, not understand his own vision recorded in chapter vii., until instructed by the angel. " I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people." Rev. xviii. 4. This is a clue to a solution of the mystery. If John heard such a voice from heaven, then somebody in the apocalyptical heaven, i. e. the church, must have uttered it, and here it is: "Go ye forth from Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of sing- ing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the ends of the 58 STUDIES ON THE earth ; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed His servant Jacob." Isa. xlviii. 20. This evidently refers to the going forth from Babylon of Jacob's literal seed, when their seventy year captivity had expired. But the prophecy contains more than that, for it is evident that the mere emigrating of a small colony comprising about fifty thousand souls, (Ezra ii.), followed during a few succeeding decades by several much smaHer caravans, was, politically, an insignificant event; in realty affecting none but the few Jews taking part therein. Hence neither was, nor needed to be published the world over. The spiritually trained eye can not here fail to see a prophecy concerning redemption in our Lord Christ JESUS, which 'should be, has been, and is being published from pole to pole the globe around, telling all who sit in dark- ness, in the valley of the shadow of death, that God has redeemed His people. Let us refer to Isaiah Hi. u : "Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out from the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD." Jeremiah likewise, exhorts God's people to come out of Babylon, not once but repeatedly is the warning sounded by him. See Jer. 1. 8, 28, and li. 6. No wonder then that John on Patmos, heard the voice from heaven, it was certainly sounded loud enough, having, as we have seen, been repeatedly uttered by two of Israel's greatest prophets. But what does ancient Babylon typify? certainly not the catholic church, for God's people, Israel, did literally come out of Babylon under the leadership, or rather rulership, of Cyrus, the Persian king, but to say that God's people spiritually came out of the catholic church would be rank BOOK OF REVELATION 59 nonsense; nor does the type apply any better to pagan Rome. The people of God came under our Savior's redeeming mercy, out from the power of sin, which, by virtue of a broken law held them captive with as much spiritual force, as Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, until Cyrus, cap- tured and held literal Israel prisoners during the space of seventy years. God's people are always warned against the company of sin and sinners, and it is this Babylon, this Shinar of confusion and sin, that the voice from heaven, heard by John, warned the children of God to flee from. Lest this shall be deemed a false conclusion, I here call on Paul, the great Gentile apostle, to testify: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers : for what fellow- ship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? . . . For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, ' I will dwell among them, and walk among them; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, said the LORD, and touch not the unclean ; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, said the Lord Almighty.' " 2 Cor. vi. 14-18. This testimony of Paul, gathered by him from several pro- phetic and Mosaic books, is, in plain and open language, a resounding of the voice from heaven, heard by John, being in part a verbatim quotation of Isaiah Hi. 1 1 ; and how does Paul apply it? " Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, Let us" "come out of pagan Rome." No ! "Let us come out of the Catholic church." No ! "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit," [Yes, that is it. J 2 Cor. xii. i. 60 STUDIES ON THE That in Paul's mind is the real antitypical Babylon, from which we are to come out, and, following him, we shall have no trouble, nor risk any misinterpretation of scripture. And this, by Paul, applied to redemption in Christ JESUS, with a consequent crucifying of the flesh with the affections thereof, is in full accord with Isaiah. " Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD." Isa. Hi. u. And again, "Tell ye to the ends of the earth, the LORD hath redeemed His servant Jacob." Isa. xlviii. 20. Just what Paul and his contemporaries labored to do, and what every true hearted child of God is trying to do to day. The people of God, the ransomed Israel, those who by faith in our Savior's death and resurrection, and baptism thereinto, have become the sin-cleansed children of God; are always in symbol called the virgin daughter of Zion, the Lamb's bride, or similar titles. Such being the case we can easy see that a "harlot" is a most fitting symbol for their antithesis, the unredeemed, sin-besotten, sin-con- demned world. Indeed a fitter symbol could not well be imagined, and it is from those, Paul warns his Corinthian brethren to flee, saying, " Be ye not unequally yoked to- gether with unbelievers," etc. 2 Cor. vi. 14. We now turn to Zechariah, where, through a vision somewhat simi- lar to the one on Patmos, the same subject is considered. Zechariah lived and wrote shortly after Israel's return from Babylon, during the period of troublous times predicted in Daniel ix. 25. The people only fifty thousand strong, were, though re- turning from Babylon full of courage and zeal for the wor- ship of the Lord, so fiercely opposed in the building of their sanctuary, that their hands were enfeebled and the work dropped. Ezra iv. and vi. Under these circumstances the LORD raised up Zecha- BOOK OF REVELATION 6 1 riah and Haggai, again strengthening their feeble hands, and encouraging their leaders, Zerubbabel and Joshua. The spirit of God at the same time evidently melted the heart of the Babylonian ruler, causing him to issue a renewed edict for erecting the Jewish temple; containing also a fierce warning to every opposer of the work. Ezra vi. Thus freed from all opposition, the Jews speedily per- fected the temple and re-established worship as ordained by Moses, and we may well suppose that the majority of them imagined that all visions and prophecies connected with their return were now fulfilled. They knew their Babylonian captivity was the result of their fathers' sins; and compiehended full well that a mode of worship and general social condition, purer than that of their fath- ers, must be inaugurated and maintained; or similar calamities would befall them. To their credit be it said, that idolatry, the chief crimes of their fathers, was never afterwards tolerated in Israel. But their deliverance from Babylon was like their former deliverance from Egypt, though truly a national blessing, typical of the great spiritual redemption of God's people through the all sin-cleansing blood of God's spotless Lamb, our Redeemer, Christ JESUS, and all prophecies concerning their former typical redemptions, though there and then literally fulfilled, have in them a spiritual kernel, an application to spiritual things; and a fulfillment in this age and dispensation, as clearly seen in all New Testament writings. For no candid reader can fail to observe that those prophecies whenever quoted by apostle or evangelist, have always been given a spiritual application. With these thoughts, let us consider Zechariah v. 5-11 : The prophet saw an ''ephah going forth," and in the midst of this measure of justice, sat a woman, a representation 62 STUDIES ON THE of Wickedness. Then the angel informs the prophet, that the woman in the ephah was their resemblance through all the earth; most translations read : "all the land." This, how- ever will not change its meaning, as the land of Israel typi- fied the whole Christian world. But Wickedness in the "aphah" conveys the idea that Israel was still impure. Two women appeared and lifted the "ephah" with its load of Wickedness up between heaven and earth. The commentators seem entirely at sea concerning these women, nor did the angel explain that part of the symbol. Two men carrying a bushel basket between them is a com- mon sight in European countries, and it was evidently quite as common to see two women perform such menial labor in the age and land of Israel. But those women had the wings of a stork, showing them to be more than natural laborers; and remembering that the church of God is sym- bolized by a woman, we may be justified in here, seeing the daughter of Zion and her mother, or, in other words, the church of God, under its two dispensations, law and gospel covenants. At the appearance of these two carriers the woman in the "ephah" endeavored to get out, evidently desiring to remain in the land of Israel ; but is cast, or, as the true rendering reads, thrust backward into the "ephah;" and a talent of lead laid on to keep her there. Then the prophet, anxious to learn whither the two carriers take the "ephah," is informed: "To build her a house in Shinar land [simply another name for Babylon], to set and establish her there upon her own base." Let us mark well, dear reader, "her own base" in Babylon. It is a fact known to every gospel believer, that the two -covenants, law and gospel, have been the means in our Heavenly Father's hand to expel wickedness from God's BOOK OF REVELATION 63 household. The law having been our schoolmaster bringing us to Christ, (Gal. iii. 24), who wrought re- demption from sin on the accursed tree. It is, alas, also, a fact that iniquity, weakness, because of human flesh, still clings to the children of God; and human passions are con- quered only by the power of God, and constant prayerful watching by the redeemed child of God. All this was fully illustrated by the vision : Israel had been redeemed in type, but wickedness in the "ephah" was still there, anxious to remain in their midst, and only by main force of the angelic arm, and a leaden cover too heavy for her, she was forced out of Israel and back into her own home, "Shinar" land, and there established on her own base. Now the picture looks plain. The woman in the "ephah" represents wickedness; and her home is in Baby- lon. The woman on the beast is also Babylon ? Rev. xvii. 5 ; hence, the two visions represent the same thing. And when John, in symbol, hears a voice from heaven saying : "Come out of Babylon lest ye be overtaken in her plagues, ye My people," (See Rev. xviii. 1-5;) he simply hears and writes in symbol what Paul writes in plain open lan- guage: " Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but be holy as becometh the children of God; lest in the day of judgment ye be partakers of the punish- ment awaiting sinners and ungodly men." No need then of hunting for fallen empires, or apostate churches as being symbolized by the woman on the beast, but rather see the "harlot" in oar every day occupation and surrounding, ever ready to raise her head and escape from our measure of justice; and eager to remain in God's true land of Israel, i. e., the condition of sanctification and redemption from sin through Christ JESUS our Lord. 64 STUDIES ON THE The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Indeed, dear reader, we all know in our hearts, that the harlot, the antithesis of the virgin daughter of Zion, is ever clamoring for a place in our breasts, let us beware therefore lest she with her ever alluring garment of gold and precious stones, escape from our measure of justice; and we, blinded by the luster of her garment, in a mo- ment of slumber and sleep, forgetful of our loving Re- deemer's tender mercies and fearful agony, becoming en- ticed into tasting the contents of her golden cup, filling our souls with poison, and alluring us down through the gates of sheol ! Wickedness, sin in the flesh, she and none else is Baby- lon the great. In her is found the blood of all slain in the earth, she is the mother of all harlots, and abominations of the earth; she has many inhabitants of confused tongues. Babylon is her true name signifying, as it does, " confu- sion." And sits on many waters, i. e., on all nations, tongues, and languages of mother earth. THE SCARLET COLORED BEAST. HAVING thus a full view of the harlot, let us for a moment look at the beast. "The beast was, and is not, and yet is; shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into per- dition. " The expressions "was," "is not," and "yet is," seem, in the full sense of those words wholly absurd. To be, exist, and at the same time not exist is to human understanding absolutely impossible. When however remembering that Abel spoke, although dead, (Heb. xi. 4); that the Patri- archs, although sleeping in mother earth, were to divine BOOK OF REVELATION 65 eyes alive in Moses' day, (Luke xx. 38) ; and that Abra- ham, while yet childless, was, before God, the Father of many nations, (Romiv 17); we may, looking at those state- ments from the view-point of their utterance, find them entirely harmonious. "The beast shall ascend out of the bottomless pit," (Rev. xi. 7), and knowing that the spirit of the bottomless pit, evil, and nothing but evil, filled every human breast, and completely controlled all men in Noah's time, (Gen. vi. 5), we can fully understand that the beast was at that time fully covered with " names of blasphemy," and in full world control. Likewise in Sodom in the day cf Lot. And though, as before stated, each world power from Egypt down, constituted a part of this beast; there was at all times a sufficient amount of innocence and moral goodness intermingled with carnal beastliness, to restrain a just Heaven from executing immediate judgment, as was exe- cuted on the antediluvians and Sodomites. There were, F. Ex. in Nineveh, sixty thousand small children not knowing their right hand from the left, (Jonah iv. n.) In them might be found some good material wherefrom to develop good men and good women, hence, they were not wholly given to beastliness. But in the time of Noah or of Lot in Sodom, society was, excepting the few whom the LORD led out, absolutely rotten, beast, in the full sense of that word, filled from head to foot with names of blasphemy. In later days, such as the reign of Pharaoh, or Nebu- chadnezzar, there was, though truly beastliness enough among them, also an element of virtue. Thus we find Rahab, in Jericho, fearing the name of the LORD, and anx- ious to save the fall of Israel, (Joshua ii.) Nor can we fail to admire the character of Ruth, likewise seeking shelter 5 66 STUDIES ON THE under the wing of the LORD. These isolated cases go to show faith mixed in hearing of God's message in those remote times. The Babylonian beast was made to stand on its feet like a man, and a man's heart given to it, (Dan. vii. 4), a prophecy fully verified when Nebuchadnezzar repeatedly announced his belief in, and adoration of the God of Israel. The laws of Israel had in all the centuries from Nebu- chadnezzar to Christ been scattered among all people wherever the Jews went, written not only in Hebrew but also in Greek ; their benignant influence had been felt among the heathen, and society prepared to receive the message of salvation through our Lord JESUS Christ. Hence, in John's day, the "beast all covered with names of blasphemy," that is, a social condition of complete rotten- ness, had been, and was not, did not exist, except as it even to-day exists, in the bottomless pit, the lower dregs of society, from whence it shall finally emanate and go into perdition. I need not quote scripture to prove that a condition of the most fearful corruption and social de- pravity, shall ere this mundane sphere with its inhabitants of flesh and blood, gets ripe for destruction, exist among men, drawing them wholly from God, and sink them into the mire of carnality and complete beastliness. Thus the beast, will be the eight and out of the seven; not one of the seven, but out of or springing from the seven, in whom the element of beastliness has always been found; will be wholly covered with names of blasphemy and go into per- dition in the judgment day. The great " I AM " never throws away any of His works while they serve any good cause or contain good seed in them. Abraham, praying for Sodom, was assured that ten just persons, if found in there would prove her salvation; but there being only four, and one of them a doubtful case, the LORD took them out and destroyed the whole nest. BOOK OF REVELATION 67 One nundred and twenty years were granted the ante- diluvians as time to repent, had there been a germ of good seed among them, but none being found they were all drowned. The Jewish nation were throughout all the years of their commonwealth, filled with wickedness, but the good seed was also there, and that having been taken out, they were, as a nation, rejected, never again to be habilitated. So it will be in the last days, when the last vestige of good seed in the human family shall have sprouted and matured, when nothing but serpent-seed producing one compact family of reptiles shall fill and fully domineer the earth, when society, through and through, shall be as rotten, as are those social members now occupying the lowest dens of vice in all lands. Then the beast, filled from head to foot with names of blasphemy, shall have descended out of the bottomless pit, and shall go into perdition. Then shall have come the time when God's redeemed children, "now bearing the image of the earthly Adam, shall bear the image of the Heavenly. " i Cor. xv. 49. Flesh, /'. e. human passions and desires, the cause of all crimes, the unconverted and unconvertable sin-be- sotten humanity with its reptile nature, shall be " con- sumed by the spirit of His mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of His coming. " 2 Thess. ii. 8, then indeed the beast shall have perished, and the doom of Babylon the great harlot shall have been meted out in full. "THE TEN HORNS." THE DOMINIONS of the "ten horns" were, in John's day, future, but ruling one hour with the beast, that is, rule a short time in heathen darkness, they should "make war with the Lamb," and be conquered, Rev. xvii. 12-14; a prophecy plainly showing that no nation should ever 68 STUDIES ON THE accept Christianity without opposition; as has been fully verified by history. But verse 16 says, that "they shall hate the whore, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. " This is a recital of punishments inflicted in early bar- barous ages on the poor lamentable wretch who, innocent or guilty, fell into monarchial displeasure, all kinds of tor- ments and contempts were heaped upon him. And thus is indeed the harlot held in contempt and punished by all Christian nations of to-day. Be it freely admitted that many laws may be defective and their execution only par- tial, yet there is in all Christian lands a system of legisla- tion aiming to elevate men's minds, teaching them to shun evil and practise virtue ; punishing them for company with the harlot, sin in its manifold aspects, thus really, though as " by moonlight," seeking to lead men out of Babylon into Zion, they hate the harlot, and expose her shame. And when the day of reckoning with all nations shall have been passed, when the saved of God in full resurrected glory, " robed in white, with palms in their hands : shall echo, Salvation and glory to God and the Lamb, Rev. vii. 9; praising our Lord for beneficial laws ruling their several countries during the centuries of gospel dispensation; then indeed it will be seen that those nations did "hate the har- lot, and burn her with fire;" the effect of a nation's laws must always be accredited to the nation. If any person doubts the correctness of these conclu- sions, let him appear anywhere in public in company with the harlot, that is practise openly and publicly anything contrary to the^welfare of his fellow-man, and forbidden in the generally sensible criminal codes, and he will soon have his doubts dispelled by finding himself securely locked behind bolts and bars of steel. BOOK OF REVELATION 69 CHAPTER V. THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON REV. XVI. 12-21. THE "battle of Armageddon" is, like the battle between "Michael and the dragon" of chapter xii, generally looked upon, at least by Adventists as a literal battle. Some bright eyed Advent leader, observing the nations of Europe keenly watching each other's military move- ments, is forever scanning the political horizon in search of omens heralding the Armageddon strife. One might think they would tire of thus ever chasing the rainbow, but not so, every political mist, no matter from what direction, is to them as sure sign of our Lord's near coming, although the Savior warned his faithful followers not to look upon those things as signs of the world's end. Matt. xxiv. 4-8 ; Mark xiii. 7. " He gathered them together to a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon." Rev. xvi. 16. Why, if a literal place, is it called Armageddon only in Hebrew? Literal places, as Jerusalem, Constantinople, Peking, or Washington, retain their names in all languages, hence the fact that Armageddon is thus named in Hebrew only de- stroys its literality. That the battle of Armageddon is synonymous with the war of Revelation xx. 7-9, where " Gog and Magog compass the camp of the saints," is evi- dent from the fact that both texts describe a battle directly connected with our Lord's coming. But the people of God, instead of encamping in some literal fortification, 70 STUDIES ON THE are scattered far and wide in the earth, and cannot be surrounded by any literal army, another proof of the vision's spirituality. Why is the parenthesis, verse 15, inserted in the very midst of the Armageddon battle ? Why this warning ? " Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." The condition, purity or filth, of a man's spiritual garment has nothing whatever to do with literal warfare. The largest cannon, the most powerful explosive, and the best trained gunners, carry the battle now-a^days, but if the battle is metaphorical, /'. e., a battle of God's people against false dogmas and sinful lust, to "escape de- struction in the great day of wrath and perdition of un- godly men;" we see the import of this great exhortation, merely an echo of our Savior's in Matt. xxiv. 42-51; See also, 2 Pet. iii. 11-14. THE GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES. 11 THE sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. " Verse 12. "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abomi- nations of the earth," having been described in a privious chapter, needs no mention here, except so far as to locate the great river Euphrates. Ancient Babylon was located on the river Euphrates; its water served as an highway, supplying the city with provisions and other needed articles. Cyrus, besieging the city, viewed its majestic walls, 350 feet high, and 75 feet broad at the top, realizing not only the impossibility of scaling them, but also the utter imbecility of, even the most formidable battering BOOK OF REVELATION 71 rams as effective against them, decided to dry up the river bed by changing its course into a new channel dug for the purpose, and so admirably did his plan succeed, that Babylon, on the night of some public festival, cele- brated in high glee with drunkenness and revelry, was com- pletely surprised and taken, the besieging army marching in through the now dried up river bed, and as Media and Persia were located east of Babylon, their rulers were the kings from the east, for whose sake the river Euphrates was dried up. But, it may be asked, what has the capture of ancient Babylon to do with John's vision on Patmos? Types, when understood, always serve as means of ex- plaining antitypes. Babylon being, as seen, a type of sin- besotten unredeemed and unredeemable humanity, the Euphrates, the source of its sustenance, likewise typified that stream of ignorance, idolatry, superstition and world- wide lewdness, which, from time immemorial, has served to sustain antitypical Babylon, keep her inhabitants estranged from God, surrounded with an insurmountable wall of spiritual darkness and Godless gloom. Like as Cyrus and his associates from the east, did, in days of old, by drying up the river bed of typical Babylon, enter the city and liberate God's people, so have, in this gospel dispensation, the antitypical kings from the east, the true light bearers of gospel proclamation, turned anti- typical Euphrates into another channel; they have, by constant effort of no less than nineteen centuries, caused that ever flowing ancient river of darkness, superstition, and idolatry with all its spiritual filth, to turn away from God's people, and made the light of divine truth shine among them, so that all having ears to hear can grasp the gospel of salvation; flee from the midst of Babylon, and thus 72 STUDIES ON THE escape the infliction of her impending doom. And did not those light bearers, those great liberators of God's people, come from the east? Freely assenting that the "East," to be metaphorical, signifying sunrise, or source of light, it remains nevertheless a fact, that gospel proclamation in all its promulgation has steadily pursued a westerly course. First, into Europe from Asia, thence to America, and now from here to Asia. Truly, its proclaimers are kings from the east, and they take God's people out of Babylon. THE SPIRITS RESEMBLING FROGS: OR, PLAGUE OF THE SIXTH VIAL. THREE unclean spirits, like frogs, proceed from three diff- erent sources; the "mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet" The people of all Christian countries, and all lands whatsoever, will doubtless embrace Christianity before our Lord's coming, are divided into four classes and only four. First: Our Lord's chosen few, the element who, through faith in our Heavenly Father's spotless Lamb, have been redeemed from sin and condemnation, and thus metaphori- cally gone out from Babylon. Secondly: The dragon element, scoffers, infidels, and sceptics, who, like the dragon in the garden of Eden, seek to persuade us that God never gave a commandment re- straining men from indulging in what their carnal hearts desire. Highstrung and lofty indeed are their vain preten- tlons; with "swelling words of vanity," ever alluring men, and promising them liberty, if only willing to forsake God, and ignore His word, though themselves the servants of sin. 2 Pet. ii. 17-19. BOOK OF REVELATION 73 Thirdly: A class of men ever proclaiming, "Thus saith the Lord," but in reality as far from divine truth as were the prophets of Baal in the day of Ahab. They may be heathen, worshiping false gods, or they may be nominally Christians, misled by a false gospel, generally brimful of zeal, they think to serve God with their man-made dogmas, but are actually as far from the true faith as the dragon element. These constitute the false prophet. Fourthly: We find in society the beast element, the lower dregs of all classes. Not interested in religious con- troversy, they take no part neither for nor against. The dragon and the false prophet are fighting one another, and both are fighting the truth; but the beast element take no part with either side. They are no more interested in the gospel controversy than would be an ox in the most deadly conflict hetween man and man. Like dumb brutes, they think of nothing but eating, drinking, and satisfying their carnal desires; and are by the revelator deservedly designated "the beast." Blind indeed is he who fails to see these three filthy spirits astir to-day in all lands of Christendom, deceiving men, enticing them away from gospel truth, and literally setting them in battle array against God and our Lord Christ JESUS, not to any literal warfare, but to a hard hearted stubborn rebellion against God's truth, promul- gated through the spilt blood of millions of martyrs follow- ing God's spotless Lamb in His holy fight. " They [these three] are spirits ot demons working miracles which go forth to the kings of the whole earth," etc. The Greek word "seemeion," translated miracles, does not necessarily signify a miracle, but is used also for sign or phenomenon of unusual occurrence, F. Ex.: "Abraham received the ' sign ' [seemeion] of circumcision. " Rom. iv. 74 STUDIES ON THE IT. "This shall be to you a 'sign' [seemeion]," etc. Luke ii. 12. Also, " The l signs' of the times," Matt. xvi. 3. This sense of the word seemeion seems the obvious meaning in Rev. xvi. 14, as miracles are wrought by the power of God only, and not used to deceive men. " There shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Matt. xxiv. 24. Our day is by no means void of such signs r hypnotism is practised extensively; spiritualism, Christian science, so called, and several forms of faith-healing, all performing their wonders ; which are nothing more than hypnotism, now fairly well understood by a large number of people, but withal well adapted to deceive credulous minds; and draw people, not fully grounded in the gospel plan of salvation, away from God and our Lord Christ JESUS. How timely then the Spirit's warning in verse 15: " Keep thy garments [thy sin-covering faith], lest thou walk naked, and they see thy shame !" ARMAGEDDON. ALTHOUGH the waters of Megiddo and valley of Megiddon, are names of note in the history of Israel, the name Arma- geddon, i. e. mountain of Megiddo is not there to be found, a circumstance commented on by Canon Cook, as follows : "The fact that St. John has employed the word Harmaged- don, not found in connection with any locality or historical event, of itself points to a figurative interpretation. Nor indeed are we to think of literal warfare. Under Judaism we read of a literal Egypt, literal Amelek, of clean and un- clean animals in other words, we recognize the outward BOOK OF REVELATION 75 sign, the corporeal type. Under Christianity we can see only the broad line which will finally separate the righteous from the wicked." To this we may add, final destruction of the wicked, which Conon Cook, being an immortal soulist, failed to see. Hence, Armageddon, mountain of troops, or moun- tain of destruction, is in apocalyptical metaphor, a very suitable expression. And, dear reader, let us observe the conclusion 'of the chapter : " There came a great voice out of the temple, saying, it is done." What was done? evidently the work mentioned in verse i, the " vials of God's wrath had all been poured out." Note also this word from our Savior's blessed lips: " I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? . . . Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, nay; but rather division." Luke xii. 49, 51. The revelator portrayed a time when this fire shall have accomplished its work of division, When the " xiascard seed" shall have developed into a tree with the birds of heaven lodging in its branches." Matt. xiii. 3r, 32. When the stone of Daniel, [ii. 35], shall have become a mountain filling the whole earth. When the " good seed " shall all have matured, and the masses of men, heedless of gospel truth, shall stand up against God and our Lord Christ JESUS, divided as seen by those frog like spirits. Or, as written in verse 19, "The great city" [the city of sin] "shall be divided into three parts;" as was old Jerusalem in Pales- tine literally divided at the time of its final destruction, each faction warring against the others. " The cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath:" Saying, in meta- 76 STUDIES OX THE phor what our Savior said in parable : " Gather the tares together and burn them in the fire;" that is, "gather out of His kingdom all the seducers and them that do iniquity. " Matt. xiii. 40, 41. "And there voices, and thunders, and lightnings," (verse 18), omens indicating the presence of Almighty power, as seen from Ex. xix. 16. "And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. " Verse 18. We see from prophcy, as quoted in Heb. xii. 26, that literal earthquakes, and great commotion of elements, shall in that day be most terrific, as much so, perhaps, as in the time of creation; and the mighty earthquake seen by John, may refer to that commotion; it is however apparent that earthquake in the Revelation refers to wars and political commotion ; nor may we wonder if these will be raging to the end of time, as they always have. Men will, at the end of time be at their daily vocations, Matt. xxiv. 40, 41, and the vocation of polititians, and, ambition of national leaders, whether of kingdom, empire, or republic, being a general aim at territorial expansion, we may well expect wars and political commotion at the eve of that great day; another proof that the " Armageddon battle" is spiritual, for why mention warfare in connection therewith were it in itself a literal war ? BOOK OF REVELATION 77 CHAPTER VI. "THE TWO HORNED BEAST" "HIS MARK AND THE IMAGE." REVELATION, CHAP. XIII. As DANIEL, in chapter seven, sees four beasts, world pow- ers, come up out of the storm-tossed sea; so John in the chapter before us, sees a seven headed beast rise up out of the sea, and we notice the ferocious characters lion, bear, and leopard, represented in both visions. The Patmos beast has crowns on its horns, a very strik- ing similarity to the ten toes of Daniel ii., or the ten horns of Daniel chapter seven, denoting Rome in its divided state. That all those powers, from Babylon down, even in- cluding the final divisions of Rome, had arisen from a troubled sea; that is, from wars and political uproar, is well known, but the two horned beast arose out of the earth, or came into existence without war or political com- motion, and is none other than the Catholic church, "Hav- ing two horns like a lamb." Aye indeed ? very lamb-like in its pretentions, even claiming to be a representative of God's holy Lamb; and, being divided into Greek and Roman Catholics, its two horns protrude in plain sight. It speaks as a dragon, saying here, in deep metaphor what Daniel says in plain open language of the same power : "He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change times and laws," etc. Dan. vii. 25. This beast 78 STUDIES ON THE lias power to do wonders to deceive men who dwell in the earth, while those dwelling in heaven, i. e., the true heavenly begotten believers "are not thereby desceived," see Matt. xxiv. 24; and it is well known that the dark- minded followers of Catholicism are, and always have been, hoodwinked and misled by her pretended wonders. Rome does her wonders in the sight of the beast, verse 14; hence, the "two horned beast" existed before the old ten horned beast was destroyed. History throws light on this vision of John ; it being a well authenticated fact, that church had apostatized and become the two horned beast before the Roman empire had entirely vanished. The ten horned beast was wounded in one of its heads, apparently a mortal wound, and yet did live. The revelator does not say which head it was, but history proves it to be the seventh, Rome, which, through wars and internal com- motions, was seemingly tumbling to pieces; till in the fourth century, Constantine the great, having ascended the throne, ^gathered the fragments under his scepter; and, to all ap- pearances, restored the former imperial grandeur of Rome; thus for a time preventing the beast from dying. "THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST." REV. xm. 15. THE word "beast" signifies, in prophetic language, a world monarchy; and when, quite properly, prophecy points us to an image, we look for something resembling such a world power, or, monarchy, without really being one, and such an image, such a sham world power, did exist for more than one thousand years, as we shall see; though, strange .as it may seem, most historians say little or nothing .about it. BOOK OF REVELATION 79 Constantine espoused not only Roman politics but also Christianity, corrupt as it was. It was under him, even under his personal effort, that trinitarianism was voted into power, in A. D. 325. He moved the imperial capital from Rome to Constantinople, or Byzantium, as it was at that time called ; a movement naturally concentrating the Roman military forces in the east; and when, in succeeding generations, Constantinople was continually harassed by invaders from the east, Rome, the papal seat, was left to the mercy of barbarous tribes inhabiting southern Europe, whose constant inroads became a perpetual menace to the papal chair. The popes seeing this, and unable to get relief from Constantinople, turned to the Franks for aid. Thus, in the eight century, the pope invited Charles Martell, under promise of promotion to high Roman honors, to come down and relieve Rome by force of arms. Death hindered Martell from complying with the request, but his son, Pipin, surnamed the short, marched to Rome twice, repulsed the Lombards and was in consequence greatly honored by pope and people. Not however till A. D. 800, when Charles the great, Charlemagne, swept like a whirlwind against the invaders of Rome; and as a victorious deliverer, midst chantings and shoutings of Franks and Latins alike, was by Pope Leo III., crowned emperor of what was called the holy Roman empire, did the image of the beast, predicted in Rev. xiii. 14, actually come into existence. That is, by order of the pope was organized and legalized something resembling an empire of world wide power, but in reality being such only in name. It is true that Charlemagne was honored as emperor by Franks and Latins; but under his successors, too weak to retain what he had gathered, em peror and empire existed only as a shadow. 8o STUDIES ON THE A German monarch named Otto, historically known as Otto the great, ascending the imperial throne in A. D. 962, again attempted to unite the scattering fragments, but with far less success than either Constantine or Charles. Still the holy Roman empire was venerated among men. Daniel had prophesied that the God of heaven would set up a kingdom to cover the whole earth. That that kingdom was Rome, a theory universally proclaimed and generally accepted as gospel truth wherever Christianity spread. Tribe after tribe in Europe was Christianized and thus brought under the holy Roman imperial sceptre; Chris- tianity and Romanism meaning to them the same thing. Not that those monarchs or tribal heads abdicated their thrones; or relinquished one iota of their regal power, the existence of an empire was by them freely admitted; theo- retically they honored pope and emperor as divinely or- dained, practically they hated and denied them both. The peculiarity of this imperial office was that the emperor, gen- erally chosen from among the monarchs of Europe, would be king of his native land, whether Frank, Latin, or Teuton ; and could, as such, collect revenues and issue laws in that land or province only, while at the same time emperor of all Europe, including his native kingdom, he might as such emperor demand revenues he could not collect, and issue laws he was powerless to enforce. All admitted his regal authority; none heeded his mandates. Matters between emperor and pope, were on no better basis. The pope claiming to be our Savior's vicar on earth, naturally demanded adoration from the emperor, which the latter only reluctantly gave. Thus, when in A. D. 1125, a German monarch, by name, Frederick Bar- barossa, went to Rome to be crowned emperor of the holy Roman empire, he refused to hold the pope's stirrup, whereupon the pope threatened to withhold the crown, and BOOK OF REVELATION 8 1 Frederck had to submit. Emperor, Henry V., went as far as imprisoning the pope and a number of cardinals, thus extorting promises not otherwise obtainable, but only to be broken as soon as the pope and his ecclesiastical tail were liberated. After the death of Frederick Barbarossa things went from bad to worse. Weaklings, aspiring to the imperial throne, would barter for the crown everything that made it worth having, until the imperial revenue was too meager to defray the salaries of its ambassadors. Rome was the real capital of those emperors, but often, when going there, did they find it in full revolt, to be sub- dued only by force of arms, sometimes resulting in expulsion of the pope. While the different European monarchs, though as said, freely admitting the emperors claim as divine, tolerated it only as an unavoidable evil, always seeking to weaken what they could not destroy. Says James Bryce : "The system which Constantine had founded amid such rejoicing, which culminated so trium- phantly in the empire church of the middle ages has in succeeding generations been slowly losing ground, has seen its brightness dimmed and its completeness marred; and sees now (in later centuries) those who are most zealous of its surviving institutions, feebly defend or silently desert the principles on which all must rest." Again, copied from Bryce : " The sovereigns of Europe are solemnly warned that they are resisting the powers or- dained of God. No law can bind the emperor, though he may chose to live in accordance with them. No court can judge him, though he may chose to be sued in his own. None may presume to question the conduct of him who is answerable to God only. So writes Eneas Syvius, who afterwards 6 82 STUDIES ON THE became Pope Pius II, while emperor, Henry II, A. D. 1440, chased from his capital by the Hungarians, is wandering an imperial beggar from convent to convent ; and his rebellious subjects offer the crown to the Bohemian king." Such an empire was, as all can see, a sham of the meanest kind, well deserving the epithet "image," applied to it by the revelator, standing, as it did, like an image on a wall, dimmed and marred by the ravages of time, being, as Vol- taire said, neither holy nor Roman, nor an empire, till it vanished in 1806, when Emperor Francis II, of Austria, abdicated the throne. The image had lasted 1006 years, sixty-six emperors in all had occupied this sham of a throne, thirty- seven of whom had been crowned by the pope; the rest by some papal representative, and in Rome, with just a few excep- tions. So superstitious had clergy and laity alike become to the imaginary divinity of their holy Roman empire, that no notary public was allowed to act officially unless having his credentials from emperor or pope, hence, no one could buy or sell unless subservient to the beast, a pernicious claim voted down by the parliament of Scotland under James III. How firm a footing this custom had on the con- tinent is not known, but when it was firm enough to demand adverse legislation in Scotland there can be no doubt of its prevalence on the continent, where pope and emperor were of easier access.* THE MARK OF THE BEAST. THE two horned beast gave life to the image that it could speak. Rev. xiii. 15. History verifies this in the fact that those emperors, though elected by men from among * For a readable history on the holy Roman empire the reader will do well to c onsult James Bryce's book ; it is also mentioned in the Encyclopedia Britanica. BOOK OF REVELATION 83 the people, were never actually invested with regal power, if power we dare call it, until crowned by the pope or his legal representatives; hence, the image did receive its life and power of speech from the two horned beast. And he, the two horned beast, caused all men to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. This marking or branding evidently refers to the Roman custom of branding their slaves as means of identification, similar to the branding of animals in our day. Not that any such literal mark was ever put on any person within the mean- ing of the revelator's language. Yet, it is a fact that Cath. olics in all lands and all ages are, and always have been, devoted to their church, not with Godly piety or gospel light, but with a slavish fear, trembling before her ecclesias- tical ban like a literal slave before the master's lash; hence, spiritually branded with superstition and ignorant fear. The number of this branding is "666." The ancients, ignor- ant of modern arithmetic, used letters for figures, giving a numerical value to each letter in the alphabet, and ex- positors, following this method, have written what might be compiled into volumes, endeavoring to explain the mark of the beast. We shall here notice simply two series of numbers : L -fa -f t -fe-fi-fn-fO-fS = Lateinos. 30 -f i -f 300+ 5 -fio-f 50+70+300= 666. This, as will be seen, spells "Lateinos," or "Latin," when translated into English, and also, sums up "666." Another method is as follows: ee-h L-fa-f t -f i -f n -f ee= *ee Latmee. ' 8 -f3-f i+3+ IO -f 5-h 8 = 407- Then, B-f a-f S -f i -f 1 -f e+ i +a= basileia. 2 -fl-f200-f 10 + 30 + 5 + I0-f 1= 259. 84 STUDIES ON THE Now"ee Latinee basileia" numbers as seen 4074-259= 666, and means in English "the Latin kingdom." Here notice a difference, the former spelling "Lateinos, " the latter " Latinee," dropping the letter "e" in the middle syllable. The result would however be the same if either are what the spirit signified when dictating to John, Latin being the outcome of either, but are we in this remote age absolutely certain about the arrangement of the Greek al- phabet and the consequent value of each letter? Did their scholars agree in all places and at all times ? Or if differ- ing, then who did John, or rather the spirit dictating to him r follow ? There will, until these questions are answered, remain a possibility, to say the least, that the cabalists above referred to may have drawn more or less on their own imagination. "666" is the number of "the two horned beast;" and I see no reason for applying the term two horned beast to the Papal power alone; thus entirely ignoring the Greek, or eastern division of Catholism, for although the popes, and not the eastern church, did cause the image to be erected, it must be remembered that a two horned beast may push or gore with either horn; still its name must apply to the beast as a whole. The Revelation was, like the rest of holy writ, given for all lands and all ages; to warn men against the conse- quences of apostasy, and must apply to the Greek as well as to the Roman Gatholic church; hence, it seems incon- sistent to apply the number "666" to Rome only. Nor could there be any harm in adhering to the name Latin, or Latin kingdom ; were not its doctrine corrupt and its works anti-christian, a condition prevailing among the Greeks as well as among the Romans. I shall here call the reader's attention to one peculiar incident. The number "666" is BOOK OF REVELATION 85 found in the Old Testament once, and only once- " Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents." 2 Chron. ix. 13. Solomon built a temple typifying the temple of our Heavenly Father, now being built of living stones; hence, his kingdom, was a type of our Savior's church. Solomon had, when ascending the throne, asked the LORD for wis- dom to rule Israel, and it was granted him," (2 Chron. i. 9-12, but when the LORD, in addition, blessed him with riches and worldly honor his heart was not firm before the LORD, he married foreign women in direct violation of God's law, was by them enticed into idolatry, and, neglect- ing the interest of his divinely entrusted subjects, he brought Israel into a condition, causing revolt and division in the day of his son Rehoboam. This, though sounding like mere political history, does, when investigated, contain a deeper meaning. We read in i Kings xii. 24, that the division of Israel was the LORD'S doing; hence, must have typified or pointed to some future event among the redeemed people of God, and we do in- deed see a striking similarity between the dividing of Israel into two kingdoms, both idolatrous and rejected of God, and the dividing of our Lord's church into a two horned beast. The church, the virgin daughter of Zion, had, in apostolic times emanated from Jerusalem, midst much tribu- lation and anxiety of heart. But soon nations were con- verted, making kings her admirers and supporters; then, alas for her purity! The virgin born in a manger and reared among the poorer classes, when seated in kingly or imperial thrones, lost her head like Solomon in type. Like him she became bewitched with the "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," and lost her divine virginity. Like Israel of old, she was rent in twain and 86 STUDIES ON THE degenerated into a two horned beast, a wordly impious divided power. Remembering 666 to be the number, if we so shall speak, that caused Solomon's downfall, may we not logically conclude its mystical applicaton in antitype, as a warning to the reader against contamination with what ruined Solomon in type? The ten horned beast was encountered with patience and faith, Rev. xiii. 10, a fact truly born out in the lives of early Christian martyrs. But the two horned beast and the image are encountered with wisdom, verse 18. Many are the writers who have strained their mental powers to unravel the mystery of the number, a task, even should it prove beyond a shadow of a doubt to spell Latin kingdom, or anything else connected with one or both branches of the Catholic church, would not at all be promotive of true Christian faith, or victory over the beast or number. But he who, eudowed with wis- dom from above, comprehends the gospel of redemption in its purity, is able to brush aside all human dogmas and heathen superstition, interwoven in the gospel faith by a fallen church in her days of carnal ease and worldly pomp, can stand aloof from all man-made creeds, with feet firmly planted on the Rock of Ages, he indeed has solved the mystery and gained the victory over the beast and over his image and over the number of his name, though he may know nothing of ancient notation or rotation of letters in the Greek alphabet. To further illustrate these facts, refer to Rev. xiv. 9-12 : " If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation ; and he shall be tormented with fire brimstone in the pre- sence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb." This mark is received in the forehead or hand. Why not upon the cheek, or. some other conspicuous place ? BOOK OF REVELATION 87 Answer: A person's doctrine is located in his head; hence, a false doctrine, no matter how innocently accepted, or how zealous its advocate, is the mark of the beast in the forehead. The word "hand," is a very common expression for a person's actions. See Acts ii. 23; Ezra vii. 25. The symbol is plain enough, saying in veiled language what Paul openly wrote to Timothy: " Take heed to thyself [thy works], and to thy doctrine : for in so doing thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. " i Tim. iv. 16. As also fully born out in Rev. xiv. 12 : "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of JESUS Christ." Indeed, dear brother and sister, let every one of us "strive earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints," Jude 3, even amidst trials and bloody persecutions; as was done by John and his contemporaries; and keep his or her garments unspotted from the world; then neither "head" nor "hand" shall have been branded with beastli- ness of any kind, but we shall be the means, in our Savior's hand of spreading true Christian faith and good works to the blessing of mankind in all God's footstool ; and thus reign with Christ, in this symbolic thousand years, as promised to the faithful in Rev. xx. 4. Of this reign with Christ more will appear later on. The inquiring mind often asks, What about the fire and brimstone in Rev. xiv. ib, n, shall it be understood literal? We reply by asking, Is the wrath of God, or the cup of His indignation literal? This was writen at a time when punishment, in the eyes of judges and executioners, always meant torment; and the greater the crime the more barbarous and cruel the tortures inflicted; hence, the statement "tormented with fire and brimstone," was in that age a very emphatic ex- 88 STUDIES ON THE pression, showing the atrocity of apostatizing from the true faith, or leading lives of hypocrisy; and must no more be taken literal than our Heavenly Father's wrath, or the cup of His indignation. Our Heavenly Father is all love and justice; but neither wrathful nor indignant. The whole is a grand symbol, well adapted to the times of its utterance. Closing these remarks about the beast, his image, or the number of his name, I wish to stamp one thought indelibly upon the reader's mind: Study redemption as written by Paul in his masterly epistles; get into the gist of his work, wonderful because divine : grasp it in its full, heaven given, sin healing, import; live in and by this blessed gospel of life in Christ JESUS : then you are safe upon the Rifted Rock; and victorious over the beast with all his mysteries and lying wonders; though the contents of the whole vision on Patmos remains to you an insoluble mystery. BOOK OF REVELATION 89 CHAPTER VII. "THE TWO WITNESSES." REVELATION XL IN the latter part of Revelation x, John takes a little book from the angel's hand, and finds it, when eaten, sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his stomach; evidently thus show- ing that gospel, though delightful, when embraced, could not be proclaimed without persecution and distress. He was then told to prophesy again before "many nations, and tongues, and kings. This may, at first sight, look like a command to John in person, stimulating him to further missionary effort, but a perusal of what follows in chapter eleven assures us that the vision means a good deal more. As the vision proceeds, John was instructed "to measure the temple, the altar, and che worshipers. " The expres- sions, temple and holy city are simply symbolical names for the church of Christ, as plainly seen from Heb. xii. 22. More will be said on this later on. This city, the church, was to be trodden under foot forty-two months. Had the revealing angel said, seven months, or seven times of any kind, it wonld indicate com- plete destruction, seven being Israel's number of complete- ness, as F. Ex. in Daniel, chapter four, Nebuchadnezzar lost his reason and was among the beasts of the field until seven times passed over him, resulting in complete break- ing down of his haughty spirit, and a confession, "that honor, glory, and kingdom belong to none but God." 90 STUDIES ON THE But forty-two months, or three and one-half years, half of the full number, indicate that the church, during its down trodden condition, though sorely pressed by its ene- mies, was not forsaken of God, but should in due time revive and become victorious, as also stated in Dan. vii. 25, that the little horn, papacy, should oppress God's people and have things its own way during "time, times and the divid- ing of time," = seemingly three years and a fraction of a year, not seven years as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar. The two witnesses were to prophesy 1260 days = 42 months, likewise half of complete time, then be killed and lie three and one-half days = half a week, unburried in the streets of a city called, spiritually, Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified. Had the Revelator said 84 months, or seven years, we should have looked upon it as a finishing of their work. But 42 months, half of a complete time, indicates that their work was only half done, as also their dead but unburried condition, during 3^ days, indicate renewed life and ac- tivity. In full accord with Rev. x., n: "Thou must prophesy again," etc. But who are those witnesses ? Attempts are often made to associate the two witnesses on Patmos with the "two olive trees" of Zechariah, chapter four, when, in fact, the two have nothing in common. The vision seen by Zechariah was the word of God to Zerubbabel, that the temple, commenced by him, should by him be completed, see verses 6-9; hence, the vision on Patmos, given about six hundred years later, has noth- ing in common with it, except so far as the lesser may typify the greater. BOOK OF REVELATION 9! MOSES and Elijah, having appeared on the mount of trans- figuration, may be called the Lord's two witnesses, and many writers have surmised them as personally indicated in Revelation xi. 3. This, like a great many other apoca- lyptical explanations, is simply a mistake, taking the type, or representation instead of that typified, or represented. What an absurd notion that two persons, once gone from earth, should return, testify literally in sackcloth during 42 months; then be killed and lie unburried 3^ literal days in the streets of old Jerusalem; finally revive and literally go up into heaven in a literal cloud, in plain sight of their enemies; or that literal prophets should slay their enemies with fire from their mouths. Yet such must be our conclu- sion were it Moses and Elijah, or other literal person the Revelator had in view. It should always be born in mind that antitype, and not type, is what the Revelator sees. Power to shut the heavens that it rain not, to smite their enemies with fire from heaven, and to smite the earth with plagues, was delegated to Moses and Elijah; but those phenomena having taken place in a typical dispensa- tion, we are forced to look upon them as types. Or, in other words, to look upon Moses and Elijah as typifying something in God's economy : namely the Law and the Gospel. Lest, however, we mistake in accepting law and gospel, or Old and New Covenants, as the two witnesses, let us look at Rev. xi. 5, " Fire proceedeth out of their mouths, and devoured their enemies." Applying this to literal persons, is as said above, entirely 92 STUDIES ON THE absurd, but the law and the gospel do possess that power : that is, the word spoken in either dispensation shall be the means of destruction to its rejectors: " He that despiseth the law of Moses dieth without mercy under two or three witnesses." Heb. x. 28. Again: "He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." John xii 48. All will admit that the law was God's testimony among men given to Israel, as plainly stated in Deut. vi. 20; and also that the gospel is our Lord's testimony unto all the world through Israel. And who can, if familiar with church history in any age, fail to see the sackcloth. " My bowels, my bowels, I am pained at heart," (Jer. iv. 19), exclaims the prophet when seeing the tribulation ripening on God's people because of sin. Elijah : "They have dug down Thine altars, and killed Thy prophets ; I only am left, and they seek my life. " i Kings xix. 10. Behold Paul's parting address to the Ephesian elders, (Acts xx. 29-31), his anxiety and care manifested in all his epistles over the churchss; seeing, as he did, the corrupt condition into which they were drifting. Above all, behold our Savior's lamentation: " O Jerusalem, Jeru- salem," etc. Matt, xxiii. 37, sackcloth indeed. And did not the Catholic church kill those two witnesses in the first centuries of Christianity, absolutely nullifying both law and gospel with their silly nonsensical man-made cere- monies ? caring no more about our heavenly Father's plainly spoken words than were they so many heathen fables; yet never permitting them to vanish out of sight, as if buried. The word of God was theoretically held in high esteem throughout the dark ages, carefully guarded in their monastery archives, but so sadly misconstrued, per- BOOK OF REVELATION 93 verted and slighted, that it was in reality nothing but a dead letter, flung upon the streets of their city, /. e. their sin besotten ecclesia, filled with Egyptian darkness, Egyp- tian idolatry and Sodomian polution and crime; hence, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt; surely a condition of things in which our Lord was killed. " And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and send gifts to one another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth." Rev. xi. 10. Men who dwell on the earth, that is, not belonging to the apocalyptical heaven, because, adhering to false doc- trine they fail to grasp the true saving gospel, are always tormented by the true word of God; and feel happy when thinking they have trampled it under foot. Father Chinique, in his book, " Fifty Years in Rome," gives a vived picture of conditions in the Catholic church to day, showing the exceeding satisfaction and carnal pride of her blind guides when setting their own ceremonies above the word of God, prostrating themselves before a statue of wood, clay, or metal, in sheer violation of holy writ. (See Ex. xx. 4, 5, omitted in their catechisms), carrying their god, a conse- crated wafer, around in their vest pocket, thinking a lump of common dough, emanating from the fingers of their servant girls, has been deified and received sin-remitting power by virtue of their humanly ordained incantations. But why enlarge upon this subject? Their ceremonies in' the form of crossings, litanies, holy water, etc., etc., are well known to every man and woman of common sense; and are all as contrary to "Thus saith the LORD," as night is to day. It being so in our age and land, where bibles are known; and to some extent read, even among catholi c laity; what must it have been in the dark ages when the 94 STUDIES ON THE word of God was securely hidden by their clergy, killed, never, as they supposed, again to revive? But the two witnesses did revive. A giant by name, Martin Luther, anxious about salvation; sorrowful of heart about his lost condition ; and unable to obtain succor from all the rites and ceremonies invented by Romish priests, turned to holy writ, and there found comfort in just one short sentence: "The just shall live by faith." It was here he found his otherwise not obtainable peace of soul. He realized that God's word, and it only, is able to make wise unto salvation; and, gave his countrymen a faithful trans- lation of both Old and New Testament. Thus life from the spirit of God entered again into the two witnesses and they stood on their feet. Yea more than that, they went up to heaven, not up in the skies, but up into the apocalyp- tical heaven, the church of our Heavenly Father's blessed Lamb. Their enemies, the Pope and his ecclesiastical tail, beheld but could not stop them. Up they went, and there, thanks to heavenly mercy, they stand to day, prophesying again before many nations and tongues and kings. "There was at the same hour a great earthquake," verse 13. In- deed there was; a war that shook Europe from north to south and lasted thirty years, followed the reformation in the very hour of its birth. The space designed for this work forbidding detailed remarks on the rest of chapter eleven, we shall simply glance at verse 19. " The temple of God was open in heaven, and the ark of his testimony was seen." The temple or tabernacle with its ever veiled holy of holies, was a figure representing that the way to God's presence, the fountain of eternal life, was at that time closed. Seie Heb. ix. 7-9. But Christ, the great High Priest, of whom all Aaronic high priests were shadows, opened the way to life, by entering in and abolishing the real obstructing veil, BOOK OF REVELATION 95 sin in the flesh; hence, the great significant rending of the shadow, the temple veil, when He expired. Let us then in Rev. xi. 19, keep our eyes on the true tabernacle, and not on the type, as they do in Battle Creek, thinking to see in heaven a real tent, with curtains, compartments, and divers instruments for typical worship, belonging to the Aaronic order only. We do indeed behold the true tabernacle in the apoca- lyptical heaven. We do, in the church of Christ, see the ark of His testimony, redemption in Christ JESUS, that had been lost sight of during the half week the two witnesses lay dead in the spiritual Sodom, when men tried to purify themselves by sacraments and countless man-made cere- monies, still practised within the fold of Catholic night and superstitious darkness. He who will can study God's holy word, without regard to priest or prelate; can see redemp- tion in its glory, of which the Aaronic arrangement was merely a type; he "can draw near to God in lull assur- ance of faith, having his heart sprinkled from an evil con- science, and his body washed in pure water," Heb. x. 22, thus approaching the tree of life, that was barred when Adam fell, but made accessible when our great Redeemer expiated the penalty on Calvary's accursed tree. And as the typical ark stayed the Jordan waters, enabl- ing the people to pass over dry shod, Josh. iii. 11-17, so to day the eye of true Christian faith, beholds the antitypical ark, redemption in Christ JESUS, staying the turrents of death, assuring our Lord's sleeping saints of a life beyond the grave, as it is written : "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." Ps. xxiii 4. Indeed, we see the ark of His testimony; henc^, Paul : "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" iCor. xv.55. 96 STUDIES ON THE CHAPTER VIII. "THE FIRST RESURRECTION," AND THE MILLENNIAL REIGN. REV. xx. 4-6. WE must, as formerly stated, when interpreting the book of Revelation, always base our explanation on some definite statement, taken either from the book itself, or from some other bible source, and above all be sure that doctrinal points, though seemingly clear in the Revelation, are in full accord with all other statements relative thereto in any other part of God's book. The word of God does always harmonize if rightly interpreted. One thing we may be sure of, search the word of God wherever we may, and as long as texts can be found, flatly and plainly contradicting our doctrine, wholly or in part, so long we may be assured it is wrong, and should, by deep and prayerful study, seek to correct it. ' The truth shall make you free." John viii. 32. With these thoughts we turn to our text. " I saw thrones, and they sat upon them. " Who sat on them? Evidently those mentioned later on in the same verse, "who lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. " This living and reigning with Christ, whatever that may mean, is the result of the first resurrection, as plainly seen from the connection. Some Advent ministers read verse five b*y itself, as follows: "But the rest of the dead lived not till the thou- sand years were finished, this is the first resurrection;" thus BOOK OF REVELATION 97 placing the first resurrection at the ending of the thousand years. Such interpretation, however, is merely subterfuge, resorted to by men not knowing what to do with the first resurrection. Some exponents claim that the Revelator makes no mention of a second resurrection; and, be it freely ad- mitted, the words second resurrection are not there, but the expression "first" carries with it the idea of a "second," as also do verses five and six, though the verbatim expression does not occur. Looking straight at the matter from the common "Age-to-come" standpoint, we see here two literal resurrections ; hence, there must be two judgments ; for surely no one can get his crown of reward except he appears before the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Cor. v. 10; also John v. 22. But the idea of two judgments is entirely out of harmony with all else in God's book, and therefore absolutely false, though it may seemingly so appear in the book of Revelation. Not only is the bible elsewhere wholly silent about two literal resurrections, followed by two judgments but we are again and again plainly and positively informed that both classes, good and bad, shall appear before the Lord at the same time, for reward or punishment, as their cases may merit. Matt. xiii. 40-49; xxv. 31-46; Rom. ii. 9-16; 2 Thess. i. 6-10; Rev. xi. 18. Seeing all these, and many similar texts, flatly contradicting this two-resurrection theory, we can feel perfectly sure that it is wrong. Still we must not overlook Rev. xx. 4. It means something and must be in accord with all other bible writers, or our Heavenly Father's book would be faulty. There are, as we shall see, two resurrections mentioned in the bible, though never more than one judgment. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead 7 98 STUDIES ON THE shall hear the voice of the Son of God : and they that hear shall live." John v. 25. That this means more than bringing back to mortal life of a few in our Savior's day, is evident, for He says: " If any man keep My sayings, he shall never see death. " John viii. 51. And again, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My words, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condem- nation; but has passed from death unto life." John v. 24. And again, " Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead, ... if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever. " John vi. 49-51. And again, "He that be- lieveth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth on Me shall never die. " John xi. 25, 26. But, says the objector, All this has nothing to do with raising the dead. The word resurrection does not occur in any of those texts. True, our Lord does not use that word, but He does use its equivalent. " Dead hear and live." In the hour that then was. " Pass from death unto life. " What does that mean if not resurrection ? Or is resurrection anything but a passing from death unto life ? In another place He said, "Let the dead bury their dead." Matt. viii. 22. The class of men whom He there called dead, were alive in the human sense of speaking, occupied in burying the corps of a fellow mortal; but they were under sentence of death because of sin, hence, dead unto God, though literally living; on the same principle that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive unto God when the angel spoke to Moses at the burning bush, though, to human eyes, literally dead. Luke xx. 38. Paul says, " I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live." Gal. ii. 20. Paul could not have been crucified with Christ and still BOOK OF REVELATION 99 live without having had a resurrection. If however we must have the verbatim expression then turn to Col. iii. i: "If ye then be risen with Christ," etc. And again: "When we were dead in sin, hath [God] quickened us to- gether with Christ, (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ JESUS," etc. Eph. ii. 5, 6. This is plain talk stating we have had a resurrection ; and what good is baptism into our Lerd's death if it does not also take us into His resurrection? but if it does, then surely we get a resurrection when coming into Christ, and shall never die, if keeping His words; or, as written in Rev. ii. ii, "Shall not be hurt of the second death." If needing further proof let us turn to the prophet : " After two days will He revive us, in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight." Hos. vi. 2. That this refers to our Savior's resurrection needs no proof, and includes all believers, for note the prophet's words : "Raise us up and we shall live in His sight." ' It may be claimed that all these statements are merely metaphor, but, we ask, was our Lord's resurrection a meta- phor? surely not. It was the first resurrection unto life eternal. He being the first-fruit of them that slept, i Cor. xv. 20, and we are made partakers of it by baptism into Christ. " Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through JESUS Christ our Lord." Rom. vi. IT. Amen ! brother Paul: alive through Christ our Lord, because partakers of His resur- rection. If however we shall call all this metaphorical, because "we," as saith the prophet, "Live in God's sight," a condi- tion not visible to mortal eyes, then why object to meta- phors in Rev. xx. 4. Must the word resurrection in this 100 STUDIES ON THE wonderful book, so full of metaphor, allegory, and symbol, necessarily be looked upon as literal; when, as seen above, both Old and New Testament writers, call redemption in Christ a resurrection, though, to human eyes, merely such in metaphor? Let us now look at matters a little closer: Rev. xx. 4-6, mentions two resurrections a thousand years apart, of this thousand years more will be said later on ; but there is no mention of any judgment till after the second resurrection. So in John v. 21-24, no mention is made of any judgment following the resurrection of verse 25; but verse 29 is ex- plicit about a judgment following its resurrection; for hear Him say : " A resurrection unto life, and .... a resur- rection unto condemnation." All this is in full harmony with Paul, who makes no mention of any judgment following the resurrection in Ga- latians, Colossians, or Ephesians, quoted above, and by him placed in the past; but he, like the Revelator or our Lord, in John v. 25-29, is very explicit about a 'judgment following the second resurrection, which is yet future. Comparing John v. 28, 29, with Rom. ii. 9-16, and Rev. xx, 12-15, we can not fail to see the same idea presented by them all : and may freely admit the resurrection of Rev. xx. 4, to be identical with that of John v. 25, and Col. iii. T. Not a literal coming out of the grave, but a rising out of sin and condemnation unto death; into life, liberty, and sonship of God, by entering the resurrection of our Lord Christ JESUS. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were, in the day of Moses, alive unto God ; though actually in a state of atomical dissolution. Abraham was, before God, the father of many nations, while as yet wholly childless. Rom. iv. 17. BOOK OF REVELATION IOI So in Rev. xx. 4, all, who through faith in Christ JESUS our Lord, and union with Him^ have conquered the beast, and withstood all its enticements; are, though they may be martyrized and literally sleeping in the bosom of mother earth, alive unto God, who calls the things that are not as though they were. To God, events past or future are ever present, and we must bear in mind that John was in the spirit and saw things from a spiritual point of view, when, in his island exile, obtaining those wonderful visions. This brings out the words of Hosea in full glare : "We shall," when raised up in third day, "live in God's sight," net in DISH'S sight WHAT ABOUT THE THRONES ? THE word throne, whether found in or out of the bible, carries with it the unmistakable idea of authority or honor; hence, the word throne of God, signifying our Heavenly Father's authority or rulership; for we can hardly sup- pose, the great incomprehensible "I AM," Whom the heaven of heavens can not contain, actually seated on a throne or seat of any kind. Again: The Scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses' seat, Matt, xxiii. 2, not seated on any literal stool formerly used by Moses, but occupying that position of authority, formerly given to Moses from on high. This, from the Master's lips, is sure proof of what is, in bible language, meant by seat or throne. It has been shown above that any person passing from death to life, through faith in our Lord Christ JESUS, and not worshiping the beast, i. e. keeping himself unspotted from the world, has, in the true bible sense, never died, IO2 STUDIES ON THE and never will die; and, we ask, are not those holy men ruling the world to-day? Most assuredly they are. Our Lord promised the twelve that they should, in the re- generation, sit on twelve thrones ruling the twelve tribes of Israel. The time of regeneration is now; or Paul has made a mistake in calling baptism "a washing of regenera- tion." Titus iii. 5. Every child of God confesses himself born again, simply another way of claiming regeneration, the two words express the same idea. It is therefore utterly inconsistent to place regeneration in the future, as generally done by Adventists; if men and women are re- generated, or born again, in this age, then this, and not the future* age-j is the time of regeneration ; and that the twelves apcystles did, in the day of their lives, literally rule God's chosen -Israel, the little remnant mentioned by Paul in Rom. ix. 8, and xi. 5, and called by him "the Israel of God," Gal. vi. 16, no one would attempt to deny. The regal authority of a king does not cease because he goes to sleep. Alas for mortal kings were such the case. A monarch issues his decrees of rulership and justice, and lies down to rest, fully assured that his mandates will be heeded and everything run smooth when he sleeps as when awake. So with those heavenly ordained kings, having in their years of wakefulness and labor, laid down rules for the government of mankind, as ordained by the King of kings; they laid down, not to die, in the full sense of that word, but to sleep in JESUS, fully persuaded that their ordinances, once consigned to parchment, would be obeyed among men, as they also are to-day; and will continue to be until those august kings shall awake on that great eventful morn- ing; for though admitting the field fearfully pestered with tares, the wheat is also there in full growth, and speedily nearing maturity. BOOK OF REVELATION 103 He must indeed be hopelessly blind who cannot see the execution of Christian laws in this age throughout all civili- zation, not only through governments, mild and beneficent, as compared with governments of old; but through asy- lums, lodges, or divers institutions and organizations of charity, shedding blessings innumerable to the remotest corner of every land where the name of Christ is held in awe and esteem. Even at this hour when cries of agony and death are flying over our land from woe stricken Texas,* every available means within the reach of man is pressed into service, that suffering may be alleviated with all possible speed. Thus it is in all Christian lands, and in Christian lands only, as seen again to-day when similar reports, only of a far more horrible nature, come from the West Indies ; not only America but the nations of Europe bestir themselves to relieve the sufferings of those sadly bereft ones left from the cold grasp of death. How different all this compared with the barbarity of past ages, or Heathen lands of to-day, unaided by our Heavenly Father's message of mercy and truth. Let it be admitted then that Christian leaders, among whom the chosen twelve are chief, do rule the world, though succumbing to the sleep of death, as, one by one, their life-lease expires. To mortal eyes they disappear, and are, except so far as their writings continue their memory, soon forgotten by succeeding generations. But to eyes vivified by spirit, as were the eyes of John on Patmos, they are as fully alive, and in authority, as Abraham was alive when God spoke to Moses at the bush. It has been claimed that none but martyrs are men- * This was written in form of a private letter about the time of the Galveston, Texas, disaster. 104 STUDIES ON THE tioned in Rev. xx. 4. Such claim however is not well founded. To me it seems to include all who have not worshiped the beast or his image, or received his mark in head or hand. But even if admitting that martyrs alone are here included the case remains the same. The Lord does always give consolation and strength to His people in the hour of need; and remembering that that most, if not all, of our Lord's chosen vessels were, at the writing of this wonderful book, every moment in danger of losing their lives for the Master's cause, we may well understand, that particular consolation and encouragement were needed by them and therefore given to them, although others, more favored from a human point of view are included in the number. And when we further realize, as seen from Rev. xii. n, that the willingness to become a martyr was one of the weapons that conquered the dragon, we may not won- der that none but martyrs are mentioned here, should the text necessarily be so construed. But, says the objector: Alas, for millennial peace if this age of wars, tribulation, and strife is the promised mil- lennium. The idea of a peaceful millennial reign has become so riveted in the public mind that all men talk about it as a fixed fact; yet, be it freely and fearlessly affirmed, there is, within the two bible lids, no such promise. Rev. xx. 4, does not say one word about peace or tranquillity. It says, they reigned with Christ ; but whether in peace or terror is not even hinted at. Their reign may, for aught we can judge from this text, and no where else is millennium men- tioned, be as calm as a river, or as turbulent as a storm- tossed sea; nothing supporting either theory or opinion can be gathered from the text. The rulership of Christ was neither calm nor light BOOK OF REVELATION 105 handed, when last in hand. He drove merchants and brokers from the Father's holy court. Now turning to Rev. ii. 26, where the same rulership is mentioned, we read: "To him that overcometh, and keep- eth My words unto the end," (merely another form of say- ing that he does not conform to the beast or his image), "to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received it of My Father." This is a promise of anything but tranquility, and any person who considers an iron rod the prope'r means of bliss to a potter's vessel, had better go at it and try it. Vigorously did those heavenly ordained kings wield the the rod against the ten horned beast, wrestling, not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places. Eph. vi. 12. John the baptist, lost his life when reprimanding Herod for adultery. Paul was beheaded be- cause he brought the gospel into Cesar's household; even converting some of his concubines. Thus the warfare con- tinued, as predicted by our Lord in Matt. x. 34-37, till the Roman monarchy was dashed into countless fragments; nor has it, from that day till this, ever been possible for any man, or number of men, to re-erect a world domain. Try how or where they might, their efforts have always proved fruitless, because our Lord JESUS Anointed " is King of kings, and Lord of lords. " Age-to-come advocates cling to the theory of a literal thousand years; but do so without logic or proof. Why should that one expression be literal when all else in the book of Revelation are allegory or symbpl ? "A -thousand years is with God as one day, and one day as. a thousand years;" it evidently signifies a long period, as compared 106 STUDIES ON THE with other time tables of days, weeks, or months, in the book of God. We are living in it, but its actual duration is unknown to men and angels alike. Matt. xxiv. 36. Israel of old reading Isaiah xi. 6-10, and similar texts relative to the Messianic kingdom, looked for literal peace among carnal men; precisely as men now-a-days look for peace in their fancied millennium. But the Savior disa- bused their minds of such errors when saying: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace but sword," etc. Matt. x. 34-39. One kind of peace He did promise: "In Me ye shall have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. " John xvi. 33. As also expressed by the poet : " I have a peace that is calm as a river, A peace that the friends of this world never knew." Men sing about that peace; yet, not having it, fail to comprehend its meaning; hence, like Israel of old, look for something they never will see. A brother in Christ, on hearing the above, raised the objection, that parties redeemed in Christ might fall away, and could therefore not ultimately be called holy, whereas the first resurrection includes none but holy persons; hence, the two could not be synonymous. This objection may at first sight seem weighty, but van- ishes like smoke when our text is scrutinized to bed rock. "I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of JESUS, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had re- ceived his mark upon their foreheads, nor in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Mark the expression "they lived," it does not say they BOOK OF REVELATION IQ'J lived again. That makes it all plain and harmonious. The first resurrection means more than redemption in Christ. It means in addition thereto a rising above all trials, temp- tations, and carnal allurements, steadfast until the end ; as also expressed in Rev. ii. 26, and contained in our Lord's commission when He said: "Go ye and make disciples of all nations, and teaching them to obey all things that I have commanded you," etc., Matt, xxviii. 19. Our text then, "Blessed and holy is he having part in the first resurrection" simply says, Blessed and holy is he that has been baptized into Christ (none out of Christ are here seen) and has walked in His commandments steadfast unto the end. Surely to it there is no objection. One thought must, in closing this chapter, not be omitted : Israel, as a nation had, in type, two resurrections. Twice did they emerge out of the element of death : first, from the Red Sea, at their journeys beginning, and from Jordan at its ending. That this typifies events in Christian life is clear from i Cor, x. i-n. If then there are two resurrec- tions in type there must be two in antitype ; one at the beginning of our life in Christ, and one prior to our enter- ing our promised possession, another proof that the first resurrection is neither literal nor future. Millenarians, so sanguine about their expected future reign of Christ on earth, when, as they suppose, the whole globe shall be evangelized in a manner so wonderful, that nearly, if not wholly, every mortal will turn to Christ and be saved, would do well to examine the following scrip- ture : " The just shall live by faith." Rom. i. 17. To be saved by Christ, when seeing Him visibly in our midst, would be salvation by sight, not by faith; hence, the idea of gospel proclamation and re-begettal, with the King of kings visibly present among mortal men, is entirely out io8 STUDIES ON THE of joint with scripture language, and is one of the evils springing from a literal interpretation of Rev. xx. 4. The parable of the tares in the wheat declares positively that all wicked persons shall be consumed at the end of this age, Matt. xiii. 40-43; as also does the parable of the fish- net, Matt. xiii. 47-50. Paul declares emphatically that our Lord shall return to earth, not to continue His offer of salvation to depraved humanity; but to take vengeance on all who know not God, and all who do not obey the gospel of. Christ. 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. " Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that