AND PARTICULARLY OF THE APOCALYPSE.
PROPHECY is the revelation of the thoughts of God as regards the future, and His glory in Christ is the one blessed end of the prophetic Word, as well as of all the divine actings. Make man, make self the end, and singleness of eye is gone; darkness ensues by the just judgment of God—a result as sure in the domain of the spiritual understanding as in that of the spiritual conscience. It is true, we may say of the prophetic part what the Holy Ghost says about the whole written Word, that it is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Still, the revealed acts are the expression of the principles of God's government of the world, and therefore the accomplishment portrayed in His Word is the place where we learn these principles fully. This is surely what we have to ascertain. Otherwise, we form our own notions of that which God has given us prophecy whereby to know His thoughts. Our business is to gather of what God speaks; and though all Scripture is given for our profit, it is in no way necessary that all should be about ourselves. The glory of God in dealing with Jews is, in its place, as much the object of our faith as His dealings with Christians. And the apprehension of the distinctions in His ways, that is, real understanding of His Word, depends on 'our knowing to whom it applies.
Is not this taking away Scripture from the Church? Quite the reverse. There is no instruction in the past or future history of Israel, as revealed in the Bible, which is not for the Church, but it is not about the Church. That such passages are so written as to bear an analogous application to the Gentile body, now grafted into the olive tree of earthly testimony, I do not deny: an application which calls for the utmost caution and a right division of the word of truth, because each dispensation has its own peculiarities, and in some cases there may be, and are, points of decided and intended contrast. Still, the Church is not the subject treated of under the names of Judah and Israel, Zion and Jerusalem; and the effect of the unrestricted accommodation of such passages, to which we have been all accustomed, has been not only to rob the Jews of their promises, but to lower and obscure incalculably the privileges of the Church, so far as present realization is concerned.
There is now, however, a considerable class of persons who admit that the only complete fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy is occupied with the restoration of the literal Israel to their own land, and their national blessing and peace there, according to the new covenant, in the presence and personal reign of the Messiah. Hence, as a whole, they rightly refer the prophecies of future glory to the same people whose sins and judgments are therein detailed. They acknowledge that the reign of Christ over the converted Jewish people in the millennium is a very different thing from the secret counsels of grace which, through faith; have saved souls from the beginning. So far, there is a step, and an important step, in the true direction. But here is a stopping short. It is not scum that the rejection of Christ by Jew and Gentile on the cross, and His consequent exaltation at the right hand of God, and the intermediate mission of the Holy Ghost here below till the Lord returns again, have made way for the accomplishment and revelation of an unique work of God, which had been kept secret from previous ages and generations. This work is the Church, Christ's body.
It is not merely an increase of light as to the counsels of salvation, on which the entire line of the faithful, from Abel downward, had reposed, but there was a hitherto unknown and hidden mystery respecting a body destined to be the consort of Christ in heavenly glory at His coming, and meanwhile called into manifestation and enjoyment of its privileges; by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, who was to continence, sustain, and guide it here below, while waiting for the Bridegroom. The Holy Ghost hail acted, he had given faith, He had quickened, he had wrought efficaciously and savingly from the-first; but there was no baptism of the Spirit till Pentecost. He was not (i.e. in this new way) till Jesus was glorified. (John 7.) So the Lord teaches us in Acts 1. “Ye shall be baptized of the holy Ghost not many days hence." When just about to ascend, He said this to the already believing, regenerate disciples. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost did baptize them. He imparted many miraculous gifts, “the powers of the world to come; “but beside this, he baptized them on that day, never before. Now, it is certain that the formation of the body, the Church, hinges upon the baptism of the Spirit, for "by one Spirit (as we are told in 1 Cur. 12:13) are we all baptized into one body." You cannot, therefore, have the body of Christ before the baptism of the Spirit; they are simultaneous and inseparable things. Accordingly, we there find, for the first time, “the Church" spoken of as an existing corporation. (Acts 2: 47.) The Lord Jesus, it is true, (Mutt. 16:18,) had already said, “Upon this rock I will build my Church;” but these words themselves prove that His Church did not yet exist, save in the purpose of God. “Upon this rock I WILL build my Church." It was not yet building.
The foundation had to be laid: in death and resurrection alone could it be begun. It was essential, as a condition of the existence of the Church, that in the cross the middle well of partition should be broken down, and Jew and Gentile be made one new man: in the next place, Gentile and Jewish believers were builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Eph. 2.) For the Comforter was now come, the promise of the Father, to be in and with them forever—that Comforter far whom it was expedient that Christ Himself should go away. The old Judaic order was nothing now before God. There was another and better temple, Where God's presence was. There was one body, wherein Jewish and Gentile distinctions were absolutely gone, the Church on earth, and one Spirit who resided there. It is not a mere continuation of a believing people who looked to promise; but, established on accomplished redemption, an entirely now body appears, brought into union with Christ in His heavenly honors, between the first and second advent, while He is absent above. The latter terminus is admitted now by many who would dispute the former. It is confessed that the Church is the Bride, the Eve of the second Adam, and that the millennial saved people, though just as much saints and redeemed by the blood of Christ as we are, nevertheless answer to the type of Adam's children, and not of his wife. That is, it is an acknowledged principle that saint-ship, as in those who succeed the second advent, does not necessarily constitute membership of Christ's body. But as to the former terminus, even a far plainer proof has been here produced as regards the saints who preceded the first advent. Whatever may have been their many and precious promises, they are never in Scripture called the Church of God; nay, it has been shown that they could not consistently be so termed, because they were not baptized of the Holy Ghost into the one body, and there is no other introduction therein than by that baptism, which did not then exist. The true, the scriptural limits of the Church are the cross and the coming of the Lord Jesus: founded upon the one, and wailing for the other, is that body, one with its Head on high, in which God dwells by the Holy Ghost; a new and unearthly body, having a path here below traced out for it, in many and important respects, quite distinct from what characterized the Old Testament saints, or what will characterize the millennial saints.
If these principles be admitted, their hearing on the faith, affections, worship, walk and service of the children of God, will soon be felt and seen. But of such consequences this is not the place to speak, though I would here advert briefly to the way in which they affect our apprehension of the prophetic word.
The disciples, though subsequently forming part of the Church when it began, were nevertheless not of it during our Lord's ministry on earth. They believed in Christ, they followed Him in His temptations, they were instructed by Him, but were not yet of the Church, nor could they be till Jesus was glorified on high and the Holy Spirit baptized them here below. Their position was thus a peculiar one during that transitional order of things which begun with John Baptist and terminated with the Cross, the proclamation going out meanwhile that the kingdom of heaven was at hand if Matt. 10 be examined, it will be seen that the Lord gave them directions, some of which suited them only in their then state, as in verses 6, 6, some of which might well apply when the Spirit was given, as verses 16, 20, 21, 42, and otters, which evidently look on to it future resumption of the testimony among the cities of Israel before the Son of man comes. Compare especially verse 23. Throughout this chapter, and it is not the only one of the kind, the disciples are addressed as having a peculiar connection with Israel, and in no way as being the Church, or as representing it. No one denies that much of the chapter was fulfilled after the descent of the Holy Ghost to form the Church. It was then, and in Judea, that persecution fell upon them. Still, the chapter does not contemplate them as the Church, but as Jewish, disciples carrying out a Jewish mission, and awaiting, in the difficulties and sorrows of their testimony in that land, the coming of the Son of man. In Matt. 17, we find Peter, James and John, the evident types of the spared and converted Jews in the millennium, and in the same show Moses and Elias, the types of the glorified saints.
It is upon similar Jewish ground that our Lord speaks in Mutt. 24. His disciples had heard Him pronounce desolation in the preceding chapter. But it was a judgment mingled with mercy; for He distinctly intimated that, if the Jews should not see Him henceforth, it was not unlimited: it was till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Vengeance must full upon the unbelieving generation, such as the mass then were and are. But the time is coming when the nation, or at least it remnant of it, shall bless and curse not; wise ones who understand, shall at length with joy welcome Him whom they crucified on the tree. "And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple and his disciples came to hint for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Verses 1-3.) Now, it is not doubted that the Church may have used, and may still use, the general principles of this chapter. All belongs to the Church, for profit, instruction, reproof, or comfort; but, most decidedly, Matt. 24 is occupied not with the Church, as such, but with Jerusalem and the temple, the consummation of the age, the clash of nations and kingdoms, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecutions and trials, similar to Matt. 10, and a preaching of the gospel of the kingdom to all the Gentiles throughout the habitable world. Such is the general picture to the fourteenth verse. After that, the scene becomes more specific, but both as to time, place, and circumstances. Precise interpretation must. confine verses 15-31, to a period still future, though Jerusalem is still the foreground. "When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. (Verses 15, 16.) Now, what has this to do with the Church, as the Church? What has she to do with that holy plied? (Compare Acts 6:13; 21:2813And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: (Acts 6:13)
28Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. (Acts 21:28).) And how could the setting up of the abomination in the Jewish temple be sign to the Church to flee? But, no! the passage refutes the idea. “Then let them which be in Judea flee in to 'the mountains." Accordingly, they are directed to pray that their flight be not on the Sabbath day, nor in the winter, for either might impede their flight and expose them to imminent peril. It is to be a brief, though terrible, trial: "except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved." That these elect are Jewish elect, (see Is. 9,15, 22,) is confirmed by the Lord's Warning the disciples about false Christs who shall arise. Could the Church., who knows that she is to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air;—could she, I say, be in danger from the cries, Lo! here is Christ, or there; behold, He is in the desert, or in the secret chambers? But a perplexed Jewish remnant., whose hope is a Messiah on earth, might well need such monitions as the Lord here supplies. The coming of the SON of man, (for it is Christ coming judicially which the dimples contemplates,) shall not be secret, but as the lightning shining from cast to west. They were not to be enticed by a “Lo, here or there." Other unmistakable signs should be granted. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall he shaken." (Verse 20.) Here again it is manifest that the Lord is not describing the translation of the elect Church, but the gathering of this elect Israel, and for a plain reason: "When Christ our life shall appear," says the apostle, addressing the heavenly saints, "then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." Christ will not be manifested first, and the Church be caught up subsequently: both are to appear together and at the same time in glory. But with the elect. Jews, the case widely differs. "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Verses 30, 31.) They are delivered, and gathered after the Son of man has already appeared. The Church had not only been caught up before, but had come out of heaven along with Christ preparatory to His appearing. (Rev. 19:11-11.) This prophecy then, in any full sense, for I do not deny a partial historic accomplishment, looks to a future slate of things, and directly concerns a believing Jewish remnant quite distinct from the Church.
Is it in Matthew, and other gospels only, where we read of such a converted remnant? By no means. Malt. 24:15, 21 evidently refers us to Daniel for other particulars of the same scones and times. If, therefore, it be clear that Matt. 24:15-3115When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: 17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. 23Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24For 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. 25Behold, I have told you before. 26Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. 27For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 28For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. 29Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:15‑31) concerns a future converted body of Jews, and not the Church, have we not here also a divine canon for interpreting Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:1, 7, 1127And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27)
31And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. (Daniel 11:31)
1And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. (Daniel 12:1)
7And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. (Daniel 12:7)
11And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. (Daniel 12:11), and the connected parts of the same? That is, the saints spoken of in Daniel are Jewish saints, and not the Church, properly so called. Daniel's people, or at least the understanding ones (compare Matt. 24:1515When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) (Matthew 24:15)) of that prophet., are those whom the Lord further instructs in the prophetic discourse of our evangelist. Again, it is admitted very generally that Daniel and the Revelation are so linked, that, when you have determined the bearing of the one, you necessarily therein involve the general interpretation of the other. The beast of Dan. 7. is the beast of Rev. 11. 13. 17., and the time, times and an half in that same chapter answer to the same period in Rev. 12. Compare the image in Rev. 13. with the abomination of desolation in the Gospel. Plainly, therefore, while the Apocalypse has many subjects besides those treated of in Daniel or Matt. 24., while it admits of a far closer application than either to the providential history of the empire, &c., since the days of John, the grand final accomplishment of the book cannot be dissociated from the prophecies of Daniel and of the Lord Jesus Himself, which, we have seen, specially regard Jerusalem and the Jews at the end of the age.
Turning to the Psalms, we find this truth confirmed. Let us, first, take Psalm 79, and assume what to ninny readers appears self-evident, that it tells in its full import of a day not yet come. The Holy Ghost there provides an utterance for a suffering people. But for what people? Clearly they are, and speak of themselves to God as, His servants, His saints. (verse 2.) Now, is there a single sentiment which is characteristic of the Church of God? Or, is there one which does not breathe of Jewish affections mid hopes? If the heathen invade Judea; if they defile God's holy temple in Jerusalem, and lay the city in heaps, we can understand how these things Will, and may deeply effect, the heart of an Israelite. If the Gentiles shed the blood of God's saints like water round about Jerusalem, and gave their flesh to the beasts of the earth, rightly might he pray: "Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not, known I live, and upon the kingdoms that have net called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place." but is this the language of the heavenly Bride? Is it suitable to her standing to say, "We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry? for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight, by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed." (Verses 4, 5, 10.) Is it for us to pray that God may be known among the heathen in our sight, by revenging the shed' blood of his servants? "O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low." (Verse 8.)Is there not another body of saint a of whom these words will be far more emphatically true? Not that the Church may not blessedly use such a Psalm; not that she may not discern what is essentially applicable to herself; but, plainly, the circumstances, the experience, the cries, are all characteristic of Jewish saints passing through the fire, and not of the Church of God. That they are owned servants of God, who suffer in rind near Jerusalem before the Lord appears for their Jerusalem; that, in the next Psalm, they call on Him that dwelleth between the cherubim, to shine forth; that they acknowledge their sins, and the righteous retributive dealings of Jehovah therein; that they deprecate His anger and jealousy, crying: "Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall he saved; O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?" that they appeal in faith to the God of hosts, cleaving to the link which. binds Him to His people, howsoever failing, and entreat his hand to be upon the man of His right hand, " the Son of man whom thou modest strong for thyself: " that they are saints is plain, but it is equally evident that the whole current of their prayers, sanctioned by the Holy Ghost, and answered by the Lord in person, is quite inconsistent with the culling of the Chervil. Forgiven all trespasses, (Col. 2:1313And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (Colossians 2:13),) I admit that it becomes its, individually conscious of sins, to confess them in the assurance that God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But this goes upon the ground that we are forgiven, (1 John 2:1212I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. (1 John 2:12),) that we are already accepted in the beloved, (Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6),) and that as He is, so are we in this world; (1 John 4:77Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. (1 John 4:7);) whereas in the Psalms it is plain that the believing remnant have still to cry: "Skew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation," &c. Full, known acceptance, is evidently not enjoyed until Jesus appears. (Compare Zech. 12:10-14; 13:110And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. 11In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. 12And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 13The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; 14All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. (Zechariah 12:10‑14)
1In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. (Zechariah 13:1). Joel &c.)
As to Ps. 81., it needs little proof that a joyful noise to the God of Jacob, the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery, the blowing up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on the solemn feast-day, that all this is no statute for the Church, though it is for Israel; nor are we ever told to look for the forest of the wheat and honey out of the rock. Again, what relation to Christianity have the earthly tabernacles and glory in the land, beautiful as Ps. 84. and 85. may be? So also the fitting supplication for those who hate us, is certainly not the language of Ps. 83:9-18.; but it is the utterance of faith in Jewish saints, who are looking to God to arise and judge the earth. "Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Bison which perished at En-dor: they became as dung for the earth. Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind. As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; so persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O Lord. Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame and perish: that men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth."
While the Church is being called, God is interfering in no such way. He is proclaiming salvation to the world that rejected and murdered His Son, who is still, so far as man is concerned, the outcast One, though crowned with glory and honor upon the throne of His Father. Hence the Church's calling is governed by the present patience of God toward an ungodly world. Suffering, therefore, is her portion meanwhile, and grace, not judgment, her cry to God about her enemies. But the time is fast coming when God's dispensational displays will change, and, instead of making His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sending rain on the just and on the unjust alike, " it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come out, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles." (Zech. 14:17,18, 1917And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. 18And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. 19This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:17‑19).) When that time comes, there will be another and a suited witness here below; not the Church, (whose calling was during the time when the riches of His grace knew no measure, viz. between the cross and the return of the Lord Jesus,) but His people Israel, the righteous remnant become a strong nation on earth. "The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan: I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea; that thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same." (Ps. 68:6. See all Ps. 94.) “Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." (37:7-9.) "Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord." (149:5-9.) I might thus comment on all the Psalms, save the few which describe the atoning sufferings of Christ personally. In all of them it is the Spirit of Christ in special sympathy with Israel, though the Holy Ghost applies to the Church in the New Testament many truths which are equally true of us and of them. (Compare Ps. 44:22, with Rom. 8:3636As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. (Romans 8:36).) But this in no way sets aside their proper and prophetic bearings any more than Hosea 11:11When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. (Hosea 11:1) is denied to contemplate specifically the literal Israel, because in Matt. 2:1515And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. (Matthew 2:15) it is referred to Christ.
If then the Psalms are the outpouring of the souls of Jewish saints, if the Spirit of prophecy breathes in them from one end to the other, is it wonderful that the prophet, who especially presents us with the times of the Gentiles, should speak of the trials of the same saints in the last terrible crisis of suffering? Other prophets dwell much upon their ultimate triumphs, in a state totally different from that in which the Jews are now, viz. under Messiah at His coming, and the new covenant. Daniel describes the four great beasts, and more particularly the last with its little horn, before whom three of the first ten horns, or kings, were subdued. "And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." (Dan. 7:25-2725And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. 26But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. 27And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. (Daniel 7:25‑27).) If Daniel in chapter 7, is occupied with these future, Jewish saints, and not with the Church of God, who does not see that this goes far to decide the just and complete realization of Rev. 12. 13., and of the prophetic portion generally? For it is confessed by most that the Apocalypse is, to a great extent, an expansion of those parts of Daniel's visions which were still unfulfilled; and those who trace as the grand lesson of the former the corruptions, persecutions, and judgment of the papacy, are sure to bend & considerable portion of the latter to the same point. On the other hand, if it be clear that Daniel bears decidedly, in the most literal and important aspect of the book, upon the Jewish remnant during " the time of the end " or closing scenes of Gentile supremacy, the Apocalypse is necessarily fixed as having, I do not say its exclusive, but its main application in the same eventful epoch.
It is in the final results that God proves His judgment. Morally, I admit, we should say that even now there are many Anti-Christs. One might think to hear some reason that this showed that the Anti-Christ should not come. But this is not what we have heard in Scripture. Neither is it that I deny local events to which many Old Testament prophecies apply. Only, it is quite certain, if the Word of God is to be listened to, that the vast body of the results of prophecy of Old and New Testaments will have their accomplishment in a state altogether different from that which exists at present; when the Church will be no longer represented as seven candlesticks on earth, but under the symbol of twenty-four enthroned elders in heaven, and God begins to resume His old associations with the Jews, chastening them in a special way, and judging their proud and blaspheming Gentile oppressors. To leave the Jewish part out, to slight it, as is commonly clone, is folly and presumption. It is presumption, for God will finally prove by judgment what He really is, and time truth of all He has said of man, His hatred of sin, and His faithful mercy enduring for ever. He will demonstrate publicly and irrefragably that there is a reward for the righteous, and a God that judgeth the earth. To prefer the protracted period, is to prefer the moral judgment of man to the perfect manifestation of the almighty judgment of God.
It is folly, because the peace and rest which follow God's judgment in power cannot follow our detection of the moral character of what leads to it. The consequences are spiritual vagueness—a condition of soul, in this respect, hardly beyond that of many a pious Israelite who fully acknowledged God's providence, foreknowledge, and wisdom in controlling earthly events. Nay, the judgment and full manifestation of God therein are even less seen in this scheme than a godly Jew might have known before the first advent of Christ.
Dan. 9 may briefly illustrate what I have been seeking to explain. It is clear that this prophecy directly contemplates the Jews and Jerusalem only. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, (Daniel's people, the Jews,) and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy." (Verse 24.) I do not doubt that this entire period brings us up to the end of the age. The terminus a quo is equally clear, and, in my opinion, furnished by Neh. 2. From the command to build the city "unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks," the briefer period being occupied probably with the building of the street and wall, and the longer period, added to it, carrying us on to the culling off of the Messiah "After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah (not be born, or enter on His ministry merely, but) be cut or, but not for Himself." He is rejected; His own received Him not. He died for that nation, though not for that nation only. Now, this is most important to note. The death of the Messiah is after the sixty-nine weeks expire, and has nothing whatever to do, so far as the text informs us, with the seventieth week. Between that death and the last week an evident gap appears, not measured by dates, but simply filled up by the revelation of disasters upon the city, sanctuary, See. In this interval we hear of another prince, not the prince who had already come to bless the city, and who was Himself cut off, but "the prince that shall come." It was not foretold that this coming prince was to destroy the city and sanctuary, but that his people should. What people are they? Unquestionably, the Romans; and they did thus destroy. Then follows a general picture of woe to the last. "And the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." But what becomes of the last week? It remains entirely apart, and the particulars are given in the closing verse. "And he shall confirm covenant (not the covenant) with many (or the mass) for one week." It is the history of the seventieth week. We have seen Messiah already cut off after the sixty-nine weeks; we have heard of another prince coming, whose people, not himself, destroyed the city and the sanctuary. It is of this future Roman prince we are now to learn. He covenants for one week, for seven years, with the mass of the Jews. (Compare Is. 29:14, 15, 18, 22.) The covenant of Christ is an everlasting covenant, and never marred. But this is an evil covenant, and it is by and by broken. "In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolate." Now it is, I have no doubt, these two halves of the seventieth week, which are taken up in the Apocalypse, viewed in its future application; the first of them being a period of 1260 days, during which the witnesses testify, (Rev. xi.) and the last being a time of vengeance, during which the beast has power given, which he uses in warring with the saints and overcoming them. (Rev. 12. 13. Dan. 7.) These saints, as we have seen before, are not the Church, which is nowhere seen on earth from the end of Rev. 3. Its earthly pilgrimage and testimony had closed before this week began: from Rev. 4 to 19 the Church is seen symbolically in heaven, and in heaven only.
Thus is shown the peculiarity of our position, upon whom the ends of the ages are met. It is a novel, unprecedented and heavenly place, in no way interfering with the vast scheme of God's earthly government: on the contrary, in this latter, room is purposely left for another field, which was entirely hidden of old; namely, for the development of the glory of Christ as the exalted Man. It is with a Christ on high the Church is associated. Of course, I do not speak of His incommunicable divinity, as the Son, but of a peculiar, heavenly glory shared with His Bride, and unknown to the Old Testament writers, who dwell so largely upon
His Messianic rights. The Church, then, began after the cutting off of Messiah, and goes up to meet the Lord in the air before the seventieth week commences with the Roman prince and his covenant. With the Cross, the earthly people fell under judgment, how long soever it might linger, while God was gathering a remnant to the Savior. That same cross becomes the foundation of Christ's heavenly body, the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. When that work is concluded, the Church will be borne away to join the Lord in the air, and renewed dealings will begin with the earthly people once more. The Church has, no doubt, committed to her the more complete revelation of these judgments on the Gentiles which precede the good things in store for Israel, but the strictly prophetic part of the Apocalypse is not therefore about herself. On the contrary, it reveals throughout the chief contents of it, the Church worshipping in heaven, and the blows of divine judgment falling with a deepening intensity, till Christ and the Church come out of heaven and appear together for the destruction of the beast and the false prophet and their armies.
Let us now consider objections which have been urged of late, without waiting to discuss the low utilitarian tone which pervades them, though we may well distrust it in the things of God.
On the Futurist view, it is said that "no part of the Apocalypse has hitherto been of any use as fulfilled prophecy, to strengthen the faith of Christians in the ceaseless providence of God. On the contrary, it has been a fruitful nursery of mere delusions, destitute of one particle of real truth. Next, the whole must have been useless, for seventeen centuries, as a prophecy of events near at hand, of practical interest and concern to those successive generations; since no such events are contained in the prediction. Thirdly, it has been of no real use, in all its earlier visions, as a warning of events to happen at the close of two thousand years, since no Christian, for so many ages, ever applied it to such events as the Futurist scheme supposes, occurring at that distance of time. Hence, even as unfulfilled prophecy, on this view of its meaning, it has bred nothing but false expectations, either of events which are not predicted at all, or which have been anticipated more than a thousand years out of their true place. It has been wholly useless as fulfilled prophecy, and just as useless, for seventeen centuries, as prophecy unfulfilled; while its benefit will have been confined to six or seven writers of our own days, and the small minority of Christians, who have faith in their novel principle of interpretation."
It is true that some have exposed themselves to such a representation of their views, whether desirous of palliating Rome, or carried away by a too rigorous literalism, which is contradicted as well by the principle laid down in 2 Peter 1:2020Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. (2 Peter 1:20), as by the habitual mode of applying prophecy in the New Testament, e.g.
Matt. 2:15, 17, 18, 2315And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. (Matthew 2:15)
17Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 18In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. (Matthew 2:17‑18)
23And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2:23), &c. But these objections, if applied generally, are, to say the least, wholly baseless. It is notorious that many who believe that the Apocalypse will receive a more complete fulfillment in the grand future crisis, do not doubt that it has received a partial accomplishment; in other words, they allow to a certain extent the truth of what is called the “Protestant interpretation." The reasoning they employed against the use of prophecy after its accomplishment, was against this use exclusively. No one doubts, for instance, that certain prophecies were accomplished in Christ. Their accomplishment and previous utterances -form a part of the faith of all. But people used to say, as some do still, that prophecy was mainly, if not only, useful as a proof. This was false ground. " The design of God was " (to cite a much vaunted sentence of Sir Isaac Newton) " when He gave this book and the prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify men's curiosities, by enabling them to foreknow things, but to the end that, after they were fulfilled, they might be interpreted by the event." Alas! the self-deception of the wise. The vast mass of prophecy warns of God's closing judgments as ushering in the reign of the Lord. The event will interpret them no doubt; but it will be in the destruction of those who have not foreknown the warning. Thus the antediluvians may have reasoned, and perished in their unbelief. Not so Noah. By faith he, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house. Not so did the Lord deal when He said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” And if he was the friend of God, what are we? And why has Jesus called us his friends? “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." Did this include the apostles only? or has not one of these " friends " of Jesus, when treating expressly of the coming of the Lord, the destruction of the world that now is, and the new heavens and earth, said to us: " Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware.? ".... The men of those days who had precious faith did not wait for the events; they did not use prophecy as a mere attestation of the truth of Christianity; they read, they understood, and they profited by its warning voice. The Spirit of truth, according to the Lord's promise, showed them things to come, and they found the blessing and power of that sure word which shineth as a light in a dark place. Sir Isaac Newton was not the least sagacious of the Protestant interpreters; but he asks us to abandon the gracious use for which God gave prophecy to His children for the lowest application to which man has turned it. Unquestionably, prophecy is a glorious weapon to confound and convince the unbeliever, (though I never heard of that result from the Protestant interpretation of Daniel, or the Apocalypse,) but I repeat that it is the humblest of its offices; whereas man makes it the all-absorbing one. May we not humbly say, looking at the effects of philosophizing on divine things, “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” Cor. 1:20.)
Again, when we find Tertullian applying the fifth seal to martyrs, then in course of slaughter under pagan Rome, surely we may think that he did not understand the whole meaning of the prophecy without going the length of saying that his interpretation, if such it can be called, was destitute of one particle of real truth? Nor would one question that God used and honored the great German Reformer's testimony against Babylon, founded on his application of a later portion of the Apocalypse. Does this prove that Luther knew, or that we ought not to learn, that there is a final and fuller development of the great whore, for which no 'room is left in the ordinary scheme of interpretation?
But the remarkable thing is, that the objector himself elsewhere concedes the principle for which we have throughout contended. Speaking of Isaiah 2., he " thinks it certain that the Spirit of God intended one reference of the prophecy as well as the other, and that the words were designed to have, first an incomplete and figurative, then a complete and literal fulfillment." Why then himself repeat, though in an opposite direction, the error of the extreme Futurists? Why imitate their straitened style of interpreting the Apocalypse? The soundness of the principle is admitted on both sides. Apply it to the Apocalypse, and not only are moderate Futurists thereby justified by the lips of their antagonist, but the mere Protestant interpretation is condemned by the very reasoning which was meant to establish it on the ruins of the Futurist view.
Even this is not the only inconsistency; for if the principal use of prophecy, in all cases, is, as the objector insists, the manifestation of the divine glory in the foreknowledge, wisdom, and providence of God, whether before or after the fulfillment, clearly his arguments against the future bearing of the Apocalypse are refuted by himself. The reasoning is null upon the face of it; because, if the principal use be the display of God's glory, whether before or after fulfillment, and if the use either of warning before or evidence after is always secondary or subordinate, it is plain that the grand object of prophecy, on his own showing, has been as much attained during the seventeen hundred years it did not apply (if that ground be taken) as if it did. So that the reasoning destroys itself.—Another thing which may be observed here is, that such texts as John 14:20; 12:1620At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20)
16These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. (John 12:16), do not set aside the statement that the immediate value of prophecy, as regards man, is warning before fulfillment.
They show that, in certain cases, as in that of disciples just emerging from the Jewish system, weak faith was confirmed by the seen accomplishment of promise, and by a better view of the application of the Old Testament prophecy. Other passages, it is true, speak of sorrows and difficulties; but it was the intelligence and faith in them beforehand, which made them of use at the time. That prophecy may serve as evidence nobody denies, but was it the special design with which God gave it? It is an use to which it may be turned, as all agree, in the case of skeptics. But God gave prophecy in the first instance to his people. Do they need it as a proof that God speaks the truth, or that the Bible is His book? And what is the object of quoting texts to prove what is confessed on all sides? Texts which show the use of prophecy as an evidence, neither disprove its importance as warning, nor prove its principal purpose as manifesting the divine glory in the foreknowledge, wisdom, and providence of God. The divine glory is the end of all God's Word and ways, and hence of prophecy which displays the result of all: the overthrow of Satan, the irremediableness of the flesh, the truth of the promises to Israel, the grace of God in the Church, the righteousness and glory of God in the exaltation of His Son, must be learnt there to be truly learnt.
Further, that no Christian, for so many ages, over applied its earlier visions to such events as the Futurist scheme supposes, occurring at the close of so many centuries, may be readily allowed. Was this surprising? They did not know the times and seasons which the Father kept in his own authority. But it is manifest that if they had regarded the thousand two hundred and sixty days, &e., as so many years, according to the Protestant interpretation, they must have expected such a protraction of the dispensation, which it is certain they did not. Does this fact, so far as it goes, tell in favor of the historic or future scheme? Confessedly, the great mass of the early writers did look for literal prophet witnesses, for a personal Anti-Christ, for an infidel domination and fiery persecution of at least three and a half years, and that in Jerusalem, at the end of the world, or age, whenever that might be. The value of such interpretations may be questionable, but it is absurd to argue as some do, that in these points wherein more than any others they agree, the Fathers substantially approximate the protracted view of the prophecy.
The earlier and central chapters, not to speak of the closing part of the book, they in general applied as the Futurists do. Even if we confine ourselves to the future literal view, I do not admit the deduction that it has been of no real use. The apostle Paul put before the Philippians the blessed hope that “the Lord is at hand." Was that of no real use, because it has been even longer in reserve? Did the Christians then expect it to occur after so long an interval of time? Has it been wholly useless?
On the other hand, to argue as the objector does, in defense of the Protestant view, is to indulge the fancy in the face of established fasts. "On the wider view of its meaning, the prophecy has announced, to every age of the Church, and each generation of believers, events that were really near at band. In every later age, it also contains many predictions already fulfilled, and of which the fulfillment has been more or less already discerned by thoughtful Christians." It is well known that the great bulk of the early Christian writers applied the prophecy to a brief and terrible tribulation at the end. Afterward, all Christendom fell into a death-like and only not universal slumber. In the dark ages, when the Apocalypse was used, it was never an intelligent use of early or middle parts of the book, (which ought to have been discerned, if any part of the book was,) but an imaginative apprehension prevailed that the Anti-Christ was there and the end near. It was the idea of being at the consummation which appalled men. At any rate, till the Reformation the Church was not in a condition to use the Apocalypse in general. That the Church used it suitably, if that be the argument, as the prophecy was developed in history, is a chimera. If the meaning is merely that the Church ought to have so used it, it is rather an impotent conclusion after so hold a beginning.
" It has been at least possible, and indeed highly probable, that many believers, in every age, should have been warned by it of imminent changes, and have had their faith in God's Word confirmed by many glimpses of its actual fulfillment." Now, let us test this by a portion of the book which, according to the historic view, should have been clearly and unquestionably fulfilled long ago, as the predictions in the Old Testament about Ishmael or Israel, Nineveh or Tyre. Is there a tittle of evidence that the vision of the opened seals announced to any age of the Church events which were realized? Where is the proof that even a single individual correctly interpreted the meaning of a single seal beforehand? Even to this day the utmost variety of sentiment prevails, not only as to the details of the seals, but as to their general bearing. What view are we to receive? It has been remarked by one whom the writer may not altogether despise, that the oracles of old were dark and obscure, unintelligible, enigmatical, capable of being applied to any event that may occur, from their studiously indefinite meaning but not such is the character of Bible prophecy; it is a " sure word," a light that shineth in a dark place; so sure that none can gainsay the prophecy when the event comes to pass, none can complain of walking in darkness, of being obliged to grope their way through thick darkness, for bright is the light cast on the future from every prophetic word. Is this really applicable to the seals? Can none gainsay the interpretations of Mede, of Elliott, or of Vitringa? of Keith, of Faber, or of Cuninghame? Can it be replied that these authors, with their conflicting schemes, were captious inquirers, who rejected an evidence real and sufficient, if not of that sort which compels assent? Are they not notoriously among the most celebrated of the Protestant interpreters, and as notoriously discordant in their views at the threshold of the prophecy? If none can gainsay the prophecy when the event comes to pass, what are we to infer respecting Rev. 6.?
For my own part, I am not at all disposed to deny the idea that in the four first seals we have the divine history of the empire from the prophet's time—victory, peace taken from the earth, famine and God's four plagues; then in the fifth seal the gracious recognition of those who suffered in the pagan persecutions, followed by the sixth seal which, on this scheme, would shadow the subversion of the heathen empire with its governing powers, and the terror produced on the enemies of the Lamb. The parenthetical chap. 7 shows that in spite of persecutions of the saints and convulsions in the world, a certain number of elect Jews, and a countless multitude of Gentiles, were secured each in their place. The seventh seal follows at the beginning of Rev. 8., opening a series of fresh judgments which we need not particularize.
This view differs little from that which is adopted in the Horne Apocalypticae. Strange to say, the objector entirely repudiates not this view merely, but the theory maintained in the Horne, which he is ostensibly defending! Mr. Elliott and his advocate join issue throughout all the seals and more than half the trumpets! The one considers the seals to be " an outline of the work of redemption in its silent and irreversible progress," whereas, according to the other and more prevalent view, the temporary glory, and then the decline and fall of Pagan Rome before the power of Christianity, is the subject of the first six seals. Mr. Elliott, not only in the body of his work, but in a supplement of considerable extent, has given reasons at great length for, rejecting the Church scheme of the seals, width his defender strenuously espouses. Hence it is idle to talk of the prophecy announcing to every age of the Church and each generation of believers, events that were really near at hand, when there is a fatal schism among themselves, even yet, as to the meaning of the first prophetic series, where, of all parts of the book, one might, on their principles, expect the greatest unanimity.
It is, of course, admitted that whatever system we adopt, many erroneous expectations and defective expositions have gathered around this holy prophecy; but the summing up is that, while the larger interpretation conveys much valuable and seasonable truth as to the past and future, the crisis system compels us to regard the prophecy hitherto as an ignis fatuus, and not a beacon light, which has served only to delude the Church with a perpetual series of false hopes, unreal fulfillments, and expositions as utterly baseless and untrue as the oracles of the heathen. I will not trust myself to express, as I feel, the impropriety of such sweeping, unfounded, and injurious statements. Very many, let it be repeated, of those whom he would designate as Futurists are far from rejecting the general interpretation, which supposes the Spirit to have had in His eye the history of the western and eastern empire, and the protracted moral apostasy which followed. Make it the accomplishment, the specific accomplishment, and all is confusion, and none prove it so much as men like Messrs. Birks, Elliott, and Gaussen, who seek to define the details.
Lastly, I do not feel it needful to discuss the question of a minority or a majority, though the statement is inaccurate. Such argument s do not savor of Christian simplicity. The writer is a millenarian. Would he rest the truth of the pre-millennial advent on such a stake? Is any truth to be tested by numbers? What is to be our tribunal of appeal? the opinion of man, or the Word of the living God?
The grand fault of all is, that it is a mere human reasoning. The question here, as everywhere else, is to whom the prophetic revelations apply, not to whom they are given. Thus the revelation of what happened to Lot was given to Abraham, while the communication was made to Lot in time to deliver him out of the judgment, and that with precision as to the execution of it. So, as to the Apocalypse: " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand." The book was given, as all the Scriptures, to the Church of God, without distinction of Jew or Gentile—there was none such in the Church; it could be given to none else. On the other hand, there is this observation to be made respecting the Apocalypse and Daniel, that they are the revelation of the consequences, the latter of Israel's failure, the former of the Church's failure, as witnesses of God here below. Hence, we have a far more direct interest and a more solemn responsibility as to the contents of the Apocalypse than as to Old Testament prophecy in general, or even as to Daniel, while, as regards times, scenes, and personages, there is no doubt much in common. But the Babylon which the apostle saw drunken with the blood of saints is something of nearer, graver import than the city which Nebuchadnezzar built. Furthermore, the time was at hand, not present. It is very possible that the prophetic warnings it contains may be the divine preservative against the sins which at length draw down the closing strokes of God's wrath upon the apostasy of Christendom. Into this worst rebellion the unfaithful professing mass will sink, if indeed it has not sunk, before the hour of temptation conies which is to try them that dwell upon the earth. Out of this hour the Lord has pledged Himself to preserve such as keep the word of His patience. The faithful Church will not be in that scene. The Lord keep this promise, full of comfort, before our souls!