The Revelation Proper, which occupies the chief portion of the book, is a symbolic view of the great spiritual conflict of the ages, reviewing the whole course and outcome of the far-reaching struggle between the church and the world, with the multiple and diverse forces that are engaged in it, and setting forth the absolute decisiveness of the final issue. It consists of a series of seven visions which undertake to solve the apparent anomalies of God's present rule among men by affording recurrent glimpses of the working out of a great, comprehensive, underlying plan,—a providential and moral order in the world that is divine and sovereign, interpenetrated with a concurrent redemptive purpose that is gracious and elective,—which leads on through progressive stages of trial and warfare, of threatening and judgment, to the complete and final overthrow and punishment of all the wicked and to the full and glorious vindication and triumph of all the holy. The seven visions, when carefully examined, will be seen to be progressive in their revelation; for while they do not follow any line of temporal succession, they yet show a progress of thought and movement throughout. Beginning with the vision of God on the throne, a vision of sovereignty, they advance in manifest order through the vision of the seven seals, a vision of trial, and the vision of the seven trumpets, a vision of threatening, to the vision of conflict, a vision of warfare, which is central to all and furnishes a key to the general interpretation of the book. Then by a scale of descending climax they pass on to the vision of the seven vials, a vision of judgment, followed by the vision of victory, a vision of vindication, and this again by the vision of the New Jerusalem, a vision of triumph, which reveals the final goal of Christian hope in the immediate presence of God.365 The purpose of the Apocalypse is thus disclosed to be interpretative of God's plan of the ages, an unfolding of the drama of destiny, in which, notwithstanding all apparent contradictions and present reverses, he is yet ever leading on to full and final victory in the end—through all the conflict he is winning, even against appearances, and will triumph at last,—a view full of encouragement for tried and disheartened Christians of the first and each succeeding century. Why God permitted [pg 113] I The Vision of God on the Throne (A Vision of Sovereignty). Ch. 4:1-5:14The opening vision of the seven chief visions in the Revelation is a Theophany, revealing the majesty of the divine glory and the might of the sovereign rule of God as the abiding source of the church's confidence in the midst of trial and distress, and as the unfailing ground of faith in the fulfilment of the revelation that follows. This vision of the fifth and sixth chapters is preparatory to those that deal with the present and future prospects of the church upon earth, and with this in view it sets forth [pg 114] 1 The Throne and the King, Ch. 4:1-3, 5a, and 6aA door is opened in heaven that the seer may look in, and the trumpet voice of ch. 1:10 is heard again, saying, “Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter”, the further announcement of a prophetic vision, the sign not only that eternal verities are to be revealed, but that earthly things are to be seen from the heavenly point of view. And we are told that straightway John “was in the Spirit”, i. e. he became conscious of an additional impulse of divine rapture, for he was already in the Spirit (ch. 1:10); and then the throne of God, the seat of the divine government, is seen in the eternal splendor of repose, the reflection of the divine sovereignty, surrounded by a rainbow of emerald green arching above it, the emblem of God's covenant mercy (Gen. 9:13), and sending forth lightnings, thunders, and voices, the tokens of divine power, majesty, and judgment. The divine Person is presented as enthroned, but is not named, and is described only by comparison, [pg 115] 2 The Four and Twenty Elders, Ch. 4:4, 10 and 11The vision presents the worship of heaven in the forms of earth for our apprehension. The elders (Gr. “presbyters”) are the ideal representatives of the redeemed church,370 who are clothed in white raiment and placed round about the throne wearing golden crowns and sitting on lesser thrones reigning with Christ, the fitting tokens of royal dignity and authority, and of their triumphant victory through him who is their Saviour. They are ever active in service, casting their crowns before the throne and him that sitteth thereon as they worship, and joining in every chorus of adoration.371 Their number is that of the twelve patriarchs and apostles combined, indicating that they represent the church of both dispensations, the saints of the Old and New Testaments. They are not, however, the twelve patriarchs and apostles themselves enthroned, as suggested by some, but ideal beings who have a representative character. Their number, twice twelve, i. e. twice the national number of Israel, aptly symbolizes the glorified church of all the ages.372 Some find in these elders a group of angelic beings who are attendants of the divine glory and whose presence in the heavenly temple was a part of ancient Jewish tradition, as in the Judgment of Peter, where it is said, “For there are four and twenty elders, twelve upon the right hand and twelve upon the left.”373 There is no reason to infer, however, that the Greek term “presbyters”, or “elders”, with its definite meaning in the New Testament church, is otherwise used in the Apocalypse, even though the elders are here the representatives of a class. It is quite possible that the earlier use of the four and twenty elders in Apocalyptic literature may have been the occasion of their introduction here, but there was nothing in the usage of the past to prevent its modified application in a Christian sense so natural as this in the first century; on the contrary it is quite in accord with the [pg 117] 3 The Seven Lamps of Fire (or Torches), Ch. 4:5bThese lamps are seen burning before the throne which they serve to illumine, recalling the seven-branched candlestick in the tabernacle, and they are seven in number, doubtless, to indicate their fulness or completeness. We are told that the lamps “are [i. e. are the symbol of] the seven Spirits of God”; they are, therefore, evidently designed to represent the Holy Spirit throughout the Revelation, the seven Spirits that are before the throne (ch. 1:4) and that serve to denote the fulness of the Spirit's operation, his manifold energy in contradistinction to the unity of his person. The fitness of fire, or a flaming torch, to symbolize the illuminative influence of the Spirit is quite evident, throwing light upon the throne and revealing God to men, but the use of seven torches, like that of seven Spirits, is peculiar to the Revelation, and is introduced, one is constrained to think, for a special purpose. That the Holy Spirit is indicated by this symbol throughout is shown by the context (cf. chs. 1:4 and 3:1), but it is evidently used here to set forth the Spirit from a particular point of view, i. e. to represent in a concrete form the divine perfection of the Spirit as displayed in his multiple activities. It seems to be an echo from the vision of Zechariah (ch. 3:9, and 4:10) where the divine pervasive insight is represented by the “seven eyes of the Lord”, (cf. also Rev. 5:6, “the seven eyes of the Lamb”). 4 The Four Living Creatures, Ch. 4. 6b-9The four living creatures (cf. Ezek. 1:5f.),—which are not to be thought of as “beasts” even in a good sense, as in the Authorized Version, but rather as in the Greek, “the living ones”, which gives a better idea,—are seen “in the midst of the throne and round about the throne”, evidently indicating their function in the heavenly court, to wait upon the divine Person, though their exact arrangement [pg 118] 5 The Sealed Book (or Scroll), Ch. 5:1-5A new phase of the vision now begins with chapter five, indicated by the words “And I saw”, setting forth the glory and honor of the exalted Redeemer, and indicating the divine purpose through him to throw light upon the plan of God for the ages. A sealed book or scroll, the sign that its contents are hidden, and written within and without, i. e. upon both sides, or within and also on the back,—filled to its very margins like the roll in Ezekiel (ch. 2:9-10),—indicating the exceeding fulness of its contents and the completeness of the divine plan, is seen lying “in [or upon] the right hand of him that sat on the throne”. This book, which at first no one can be found to [pg 120] 6 The Lamb, Ch. 5:6-8aAt this point in the vision the divine Redeemer, Jesus Christ, appears in order to open the seals, portrayed as the Lamb of God, the recognized atoner for sin, a symbol of striking power to every one familiar with the Old Testament system of sacrifices. The importance of opening the seals had been already indicated in the vision (ch. 5:2f.) by the appearance of a strong or mighty angel, the sign of high rank and great power, proclaiming with a great voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof?” And when no one was found “in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth”, i. e. in the place of the spirits of the dead—a phrase equivalent to saying that no one could be found in all the universe—the prophet wept much, showing his deep interest and bitter disappointment when his expectation seemed [pg 121] 7 The Heavenly Worship, Ch. 5:8b-14The taking of the book is followed by an act of profound worship; the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fall down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, the instrument of praise, and a golden bowl full of incense, representing the prayers of the saints, which they offer before God. Then they voice their thought in a new song, the song of the redeemed (the Redemption Chorus), which is rendered unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, declaring him worthy that hath been slain to take the book and to open the seals, and “to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing”,—a sevenfold or complete ascription of praise—who hath redeemed his people with his blood out “of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation”,—a fourfold or world-wide redemption for all peoples388—“and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth”, even now in the midst of trials, in a spiritual sense which though imperfect foreshadows and assures their complete spiritual reign in the new world wherein dwelleth righteousness. This song is sung by the four living creatures as the representatives of the whole creation who unitedly rejoice in the work of redemption together with man, and by the four and twenty elders who represent [pg 123] II The Vision of the Seven Seals (A Vision of Trial). Ch. 6:1-17, and 8:1The vision of the seven seals is a prophetic delineation of the trials and triumphs of the church of Christ throughout all her history, especially from the days of John to the end of the world, depicted in the symbols of Apocalyptic. These trials fall upon all men in common, and from another point of view are also judgments upon the sinful world, but they are regarded here chiefly as involving the church in suffering, and as preparing the way for the triumph of the kingdom of God, the coming of our Lord, and the final consummation of all things. The opening of the seals by Christ indicates his purpose of revealing the hidden contents of the book which he had taken from the right hand of God (ch. 5:7), and the number of the seals (seven) shows the completeness of the series. The order of the seals is progressive, but they have no definite or categorical time-relation; they regard only the ceaseless swing of the ages ever sweeping on toward the final consummation. The underlying divine purpose of testing men by moral struggle is apparent [pg 124] In entering upon the more obscure portions of the book it may be well to remind the reader that the interpretation will be much simplified, and many of the difficulties will disappear, if we regard all the mysterious action in these visions as in the broadest sense symbolical, and not requiring detailed application. And although an effort may well be made to recover what has been called the “ground-view” of the Apostle, i. e. the natural application of the prophecy that lay in the immediate horizon of history and belonged to the conditions of his time, yet this cannot be regarded as absolutely essential to the correct interpretation for us and for all ages. We should not forget that we are dealing with what is really a great creative poem in prose, containing idealized conceptions of widely pervasive principles, and therefore its true interpretation lies in facts of universal experience rather than in the special circumstances which helped [pg 125] 1 The Opening of the First Seal, Ch. 6:1, 2The Lamb as the ruler and revealer of destiny opens the seals. At the call of one of the four living creatures, “come”,390 a white horse and his rider, who bears a bow, the sign of warfare, and receives a crown, the token of victory, appear in view, representing Christ going forth conquering and to conquer,391 a vision depicting the beginning and trend of the gospel age: the symbol of the victory of Christ's cause attained through conflict, Christianity triumphing in the earth,—for the progress of the life of the church is viewed like that of the national life of Israel as marked by constant conflict. The assurance of victory is made to precede the revelation of trial as a ground of comfort and confidence throughout the succeeding seals. We may properly regard the contents of this seal as a present view of the onward course of the [pg 126] Many historical interpreters find in this rider the symbol of conquest, especially of judgment on the Roman Empire by the Parthians, indicated by the bow, their usual weapon, and premonitory of the end.392 In that case the first seal, like the succeeding ones, would indicate a form of trial to the church. Others see in the rider the sign of Roman conquest, and in the subsequent seals precursors of the destruction of Jerusalem, assuming the earlier date of the book. These views, however, fail to recognize the close similarity and apparent identity of the rider in this vision with the one on the white horse in chapter nineteen (v. 11) who is evidently divine;393 nor do they agree with the above view as to the scope of the seals, but limit them to the first century, while in the interpretation given in this work they reach forward throughout the history of the church to the end of time. We must be duly careful, according to the symbolic view, not to limit the prophecy to too narrow a scope in its complete fulfilment, and especially not to exclude the world-wide and universal reference, even though it be regarded as the secondary meaning, since to many minds this is the essential and larger thought in the vision. For we should not forget that while the visions of the Apocalypse, like the voices of prophecy and the parables and teachings of our Lord, had their immediate occasion and purpose, yet this becomes in turn the ground and instrument of a wider and permanent divine message to all mankind, and that this is the message which is our chief concern. 2 The Opening of the Second Seal, Ch. 6:3, 4At the call of the second living creature, “Come”, a red horse and his rider appear, to whom is given a great sword, and power to take peace from the earth: the symbol of war, and of consequent trial to the church. The blood-red horse with his armed rider betokens the carnage of battle, and suggests all the horrors of bloodshed with its accompanying train of suffering. It is a prediction not of any particular war or wars, but of war in general, as the “wars and rumors of wars” in our Saviour's discourse (Mt. 24:6). And it was only as it was “given unto him” (v. 4), we are told, that the rider could accomplish his mission, thereby indicating the divine authority, limitation, and restraint. The sword is the same as the sacrificial knife, and the term used for slaying in the passage is the Greek term for killing the sacrificial victim, which may be intended to imply that the slaughter of the saints is to be included with others.394 The contents of this seal were realized to some extent in the Jewish war connected with the fall of Jerusalem, and in the subsequent wars of the Roman Empire which entailed great suffering upon the church as well as upon the world. The form of the prophecy, however, does not preclude reference to the then past as well as to present and to future events; it points to the experience of God's children in every age, to the Jewish as well as the Christian church, though doubtless with the future specially in view. These sorrows have been repeated again and again in the numberless wars of history, and may be repeated afresh in the future, for war is a constant trial of the church throughout the centuries. The symbol of the armed rider on the blood-red horse presents a vivid picture of the horrors of war. It was a figure which spoke to the imaginative Eastern mind with a power superior to words, especially to those who had known in their own experience the destructive ravages of war; but the details were left to be supplied by individual thought. 3 The Opening of the Third Seal, Ch. 6:5, 6At the call of the third living creature, “Come”, a black horse and his rider appear, weighing out grain with a balance: the symbol of famine, want, and consequent [pg 128] 4 The Opening of the Fourth Seal, Ch. 6:7, 8At the call of the fourth living creature, “Come”, a pale, ashen colored, or green horse, and his rider Death appear, with Hades following after, i. e. the world of departed spirits accompanying death as his after-part to swallow up his victims, both personified, and with power given them to kill with the sword and with famine and with death in all its forms: the symbol of mortality in the church, destroying the forces of the kingdom. The pale green or livid horse, the color of a corpse, reflects the ghastliness of a dead body bordering on dissolution, and points to the ruin wrought by death. Death is here considered as in itself a trial, and some of the more terrible [pg 129] It will be noticed that almost every part of the symbolism in these visions has a meaning of its own. The horse in motion seems to indicate the swift progress and triumphal march through the earth of the things represented in the first four seals, viz. of Christianity the conquering religion, and also of war, famine, and death, the widespread terrors which are impersonated by the riders as treading the path of the centuries. The color of the different horses, too, is not without significance; white is the sign of victory (white horses were not uncommonly ridden by Roman conquerors)397 and it is also the symbol of purity, while red is the symbol of bloodshed, black of want, and pale or ashen green of death, each of the latter betokening something of the nature of the scourge which they bring to men. The whole content of the seals presents a bare outline of various forms of suffering, and is intended to typify a multitude of sorrows that are unnamed. It should be noted, too, that at the close of the fourth seal a division of the seals is apparent into two groups with four and three in each. The first four relate to the sphere of the natural world, as the number four indicates, and the fact also that they are ushered in by the four living creatures who represent creation. These seals are chiefly designed to show that during the period in which Christ is carrying forward his conquest unto [pg 130] 5 The Opening of the Fifth Seal, Ch. 6:9-11At the opening of the fifth seal a vision of the souls of the martyrs appears, viz. of those “that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held” (cf. ch. 19:10), who are now seen underneath the altar (i. e. the equivalent of the great brazen altar of sacrifice in the Jewish service, at the foot of which the blood of the sacrificial victims was poured) as the sign of their having sacrificed their lives for the truth. The altar is in the heavenly temple, which to the Jewish mind was the archetype of the earthly, where they are found crying to God as their master398 to judge and avenge them, i. e. calling for vindication, not for vengeance in the earthly sense; and they receive each a white robe, the recognized symbol of purity and victory, and are bidden to rest until the roll of martyrs is complete:399 the symbol of martyrdom so often experienced by the church throughout the ages. These saints of God have not been delivered from death, but they have been delivered through death. The limit of this trial is the “little time” of the church's further conflict, a period looked upon as relatively short in the whole course of the centuries, though not in itself necessarily short or definitely limited, for the “little time” is practically the whole period of this and the preceding seals. The contents of this seal [pg 131] 6 The Opening of the Sixth Seal, Ch. 6:12-17At the opening of the sixth seal a vision of an earthquake appears, in which the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, the whole moon as blood, and the stars of heaven fell, while even the heaven itself was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places, for we are told that the day, the great day, of divine wrath is come: the symbol of judgment and retribution, especially of the last judgment, and of the destruction of the world. The terrors of the judgment thus described are sevenfold, affecting the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the heavens, the mountains, and the islands; and seven classes of men are mentioned, who call to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb, viz. the kings of the earth, the princes, the chief captains, the rich, the strong, and every bondman, and every freeman,—additional signs of universality and completeness. The contents of this seal have been realized in one way in the crises of history and the fall of empires, which we may regard as described here after the analogy of Jewish Apocalyptic, under the form of a great catastrophe of nature bringing to an end the existing order of things—the fortunes of the people of God, though not their fate, being conceived of as inseparably interwoven with the world of nature; but this is only a temporary and passing fulfilment which foreshadows and points to the final day of wrath (called in Greek (v. 17), “the day, the great [day] of their wrath”, i. e. of the wrath of God and of the Lamb), or the day of the Lord,400 [pg 132] All the visions of the six seals had a particular application and an undoubted though partial fulfilment in the first age in which they were given; but they have a wider and more perfect fulfilment in all subsequent time, and perhaps will have an especially complete fulfilment in the last time, such as we know that the sixth seal will surely have. To seek constantly, however, for a merely literal fulfilment is surely to emphasize the least important part of their meaning, and to limit them narrowly to a definite historical event is to rob them of their larger purpose, for they are wide-flung types that speak as with a thousand tongues to the open ear and ready mind. [In the order of the Revelation the connection is at this point interrupted and the climax suspended by introducing the Episode of the Sealed Ones (ch. 7:1-17), which will be found under IIb. The episodes are given separately in this outline, and outside of their proper position in the text, for the sake of clearness and emphasis]. 7 The Opening of the Seventh Seal, Ch. 8:1At the opening of the seventh seal a vision of heaven wrapped in perfect silence appears: the symbol of mystery, the unrevealed, the unspoken, the ineffable bliss of heaven which cannot be told in human words or portrayed in physical form, the great sabbath of the church's history,—a significant sign of the deep, unbroken rest [pg 133] It may be well for us before entering upon the episode of consolation in the seventh chapter, to review rapidly the steps by which the prime purpose of the Apocalypse has been thus far wrought out in the vision of the seven seals, viz. to encourage the hearts of weak and suffering Christians and to fortify their patience on the upward way in the midst of trial and distress by pointing out the path of faith and hope alike to the certainty of victory in the future days of the church upon earth, and to the fulness of joy reserved for the redeemed in the far and fadeless glory beyond. The deeper lesson of the first four seals is one of absolute trust in God when the way, as then, was dark and the hearts of men terror-stricken. God has not in any sense forsaken his people, the vision proclaims, though his path and purpose lie hidden in the night. Amid all the trials of the earthly life his plan is working out unseen through the way to final victory. His people must learn the lesson of discipline in the path by which he leads, and strive to trust and be patient and obey, while he with unerring wisdom rules and works and wins. The closing three seals contain a more direct revelation of hope and comfort. Under the fifth seal the peace of the future life and the guarantee of recompense to the saints is reassured; the vision of the sixth leads to the episode of consolation which portrays the safe gathering of the redeemed on God's right hand at last, while the contents of the seal itself point to the surety and justice of divine judgment that shall inevitably fall upon sin and sinners; and the seventh reveals the endless and unbroken peace and glory of the future life with God. Thus, contrary to all appearances in the world of men, the perplexing trials of the Christian life are seen in the apocalyptic vision to be not in vain; the painful discipleship of Jesus has its abundant reward hereafter; the certain and unfailing victory of the righteous lies at the very heart of the eternal purpose of God; and this triumphant hope is presented as an abiding consolation for the Christian mind in the midst of prevailing trial and distress. |