A Brief Commentary on the Apocalypse

The Sixth Seal.

“And I beheld when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black like sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood: and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig-tree casteth its unripe [pg 066] figs, when shaken by a mighty wind. And the heaven departed like a scroll rolled together; and every mountain and island were removed from their places. And the kings of the earth, and the nobles, and the rich, and the commanders, and the strong men, and every bond-man, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who can stand?”—Rev. 6:12-17.

The laws of symbolization require that symbols should not be representatives of their own order when there is any analogous order to be representatives of. In other places in the Apocalypse, these symbols are used, under circumstances where it is impossible to regard them as symbols of their own order. And here, as the kings of the earth call on the rocks and mountains to fall on them after the heaven has departed as a scroll and every mountain and island is moved out of its place, it is necessary to regard them as symbols of objects of analogous orders.

The earthquake, then, as in corresponding Scriptures, symbolizes a political revolution. The darkening of the sun and moon, would represent a change in the character of the rulers and legislators of the world, so that instead of extending a genial influence over their subjects, they should exert a deleterious one; and the fall of the stars, their ejection from their stations—synchronizing with the first five vials (16:1-11), and fulfilled in the political [pg 067] revolutions of Europe during the past century.

By the passing away of the heavens and the removal of mountains and islands from their places, is symbolized the total dissolution of all human governments—corresponding to the seventh vial (16:20).

On the occurrence of this unprecedented state of anarchy, the inhabitants of earth will be aware of the proximity of the Advent. They flee from the face of the Lamb, which indicates his appearance in the clouds of heaven at his personal advent. The great day of wrath will have come; but before the infliction of merited punishment on his enemies, the servants of God are to be designated, the righteous dead are to be raised, and they with the righteous living are to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, 1 Thess. 4:17. The living righteous are designated by:

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