The Mystery of God Finished
THE final book of the Bible is an apocalypse. It is not apocrypha—that is, something concealed, or hidden—but, indeed, a revelation. It gives the close of all God’s ways with man upon the earth, and vindicates His righteousness both in grace and judgment; but it is primarily a book of judgment, and that threefold. It details the judgments that must fan on apostate Christendom, on disobedient Israel, and on the gainsaying nations.
The heart of the book is the tenth chapter, and the pith of that portion is the angel’s declaration, of verse 7, that “in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets.” This is the theme of the seven-sealed roll; the vindication of God’s holiness in having so long tolerated evil in His universe. What greater mystery confronts and confuses the human mind than the question, Why does God allow unrighteousness so often to triumph? It is what men call the mystery of Providence; but Providence is only another name for God. This is His secret. He will disclose it in due time, and all shall be clear as the day. Till then, faith rests upon His Word, and trusts His love, however true it may seem to be that goodness and righteousness are at a discount in the present age, and have been so since Cain rose up against his brother and slew him.
“Careless seems the great Avenger; history’s pages
but record
One death-grapple in the darkness, ‘twist old systems and
the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the
throne, —
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the
dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above
His own.”
His final triumph over all evil is what is so vividly presented in the rapidly-shifting tableau of “the Revelation (not of ‘St. John the Divine,’ but) of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass.”
The book is by no means so difficult of spiritual comprehension as some have imagined. It divides naturally into three parts, as intimated in verse 19 of the first chapter. “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things shall be after these things” (literal rendering). The first division is, of course, the opening chapter, with its account of what John had seen—the Lord judging in the midst of the assemblies of His people. “The things which are,” that is, which are now present, or now going on, are the letters to the seven assemblies in chapters two and three. The balance of the book is devoted to the third division; — the things which shall follow after the Church’s history on earth is closed. It is the time of the end, the short period of judgment, when all who have refused the grace of God will have to know His vengeance. This is in full accord with what is elsewhere taught most clearly in Scripture.
At the end of the age the tares are gathered in bundles and burned (Matt. 13:30, 40-4230Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. (Matthew 13:30)
40As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:40‑42)); the man without the wedding garment on is cast into outer darkness (Matt. 22:1313Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 22:13)); the unfaithful servant is appointed his portion with the hypocrites (Matt. 24:48-5148But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; 49And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:48‑51)); the foolish virgins, though they go for oil, are shut outside (Matt. 25:1111Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. (Matthew 25:11)); the unprofitable servant has even his profession taken away (vers. 28-30); those who neglected to enter in at the strait gate seek in vain to enter then (Luke 13:2424Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. (Luke 13:24)); even as those who refused to be warned by Enoch and Noah perished in the flood, and those who listened not to Lot were destroyed in Sodom (Luke 17:26-3026And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:26‑30)).
These, then, are the ones who become followers of Antichrist, and are crushed by the wrath of the Lamb!
But it is equally plain that the period of Revelation 4 to 19 will not be one of unmixed judgment. Some there are who will become the objects of sovereign grace, and who, though they pass through the terrible tribulation of that time, will be saved out of it. But these are not Christ-rejecters of the present day, whose hearts then become soft, and who own the Saviour they now refuse.
In short, we search Scripture in vain for one hint that any gospel-rejecter will be saved in that day. Nor does the expression in Revelation 7:99After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; (Revelation 7:9) militate against this: “Of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,” for manifestly none of Israel will be among them, as we see the 144,000 of the twelve tribes quite distinct from the great multitude. The expression really declares the universality of the response to the everlasting gospel among the heathen nations, but Christendom, as Israel, is not counted, unless, indeed, there be found even there some who never heard the gospel before. This everlasting gospel is not the gospel of the grace of God as now proclaimed, but the good news that the long reign of iniquity is almost over, and the Lord God Omnipotent is about to assert His power, and thus the mystery of His toleration of evil shall be solved at last. There will be found in that day a people who will receive this message with contrition of heart, and turn to Him in repentance, confessing their sins.
And, first of all, we are reminded that this will be the period of Israel’s awakening, as we have already seen in several passages. In Daniel 12:33And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel 12:3) we read, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever”; and this, as the first verse assures us, during the time of trouble; but “at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”
The hour of their darkest trouble and deepest sorrow will result in the elect among them returning to the Lord. The 144,000 of Revelation 7 picture to us those who will say, “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up” (Hos. 6:11Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. (Hosea 6:1)). Zion’s sore travail shall result in a great bringing forth of children, as predicted in Micah 5:33Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. (Micah 5:3) and Isaiah 66:88Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. (Isaiah 66:8). We quote the latter passage, “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” The verses following are deserving also of special notice in this connection. See also Zechariah 12 and 13.
And so the “blindness in part” is to be done away; the “fullness of the Gentiles” having come in, as shown also in Hosea 3:4, 54For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: 5Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. (Hosea 3:4‑5). “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.” This is true, not of the nation as a whole (see Zechariah 13:8, 98And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:8‑9); Isaiah 24:1313When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done. (Isaiah 24:13); also Ezekiel 20:31-4431For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you. 32And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone. 33As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: 34And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. 35And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. 36Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. 37And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: 38And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 39As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols. 40For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. 41I will accept you with your sweet savor, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. 42And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. 43And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. 44And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 20:31‑44)), but of the remnant. The mass will be destroyed for their apostasy. The remnant will be acknowledged as the nation, “and so all Israel shall be saved” (Rom. 11:2626And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: (Romans 11:26)). To be of the sons of Jacob even, does not insure an opportunity of grace. None who refuse the truth now, whether Jew or Gentile, can be saved then.
Through the Jew, the gospel of the Kingdom will during this time be preached in all the earth for a witness, ere the end shall come. Sent forth by the Spirit from on high, they will proclaim far and wide the approach of the Kingdom, and call upon men to repent as John the Baptist did of old. See Matthew 24:1414And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:14). Thus we see grace going out to the Gentiles who have not heard the truth previously. The great result of this is seen also in Zechariah 8:20, 2320Thus saith the Lord of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: (Zechariah 8:20)
23Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you. (Zechariah 8:23).
With this agrees our Lord’s teaching as to the judgment of Matthew 25. This takes place at His coming to the earth. The living nations are gathered before Him. The separation is made according to the treatment accorded the Jewish missionaries mentioned above, whom He owns as “My brethren.” Intelligence in divine things is not marked in any, but at least they did not reject or neglect the messengers. They are saved, and enter into the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. They are the “blessed of My Father.”
And so, even though the sword of judgment is unsheathed, grace is still exercised according to the word, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” (Rom. 9:1515For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (Romans 9:15)). From Israel and the Gentiles a countless number will go into the millennial kingdom, and acknowledge the sway of the blessed One, once made a curse for them, as for us. But not one who has spurned the Lamb of God in the present period will be among them.
There will be some who will be numbered with the heavenly saints after the Church is gone. They will be exclusively Jewish, as evidenced by the fact that they sing “the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb” (Rev. 15:33And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. (Revelation 15:3)). By martyrdom under the Beast and Antichrist they lose an earthly inheritance and obtain a heavenly one. Their part will be, not with the Church, the Body of Christ and Eve of the last Adam, but doubtless with those of old who “desired a better country, that is, a heavenly” (Heb. 11:1616But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)). In Revelation 20 we see them enthroned with the rest who live and reign a thousand years. With the Lamb they will be forever, but not theirs will be the special place enjoyed by those who now believe in Him and who are identified with Him in the present hour of His rejection.
Having thus rapidly sketched the acting’s of God in judgment and in grace, as set forth in the third great division of the Revelation, I turn to notice its order more particularly. It seems to divide into two almost equal parts, each of which covers the same season, or time, only that the latter has Israel more particularly in view, and the former the Gentiles. An appendix is added, having to do with the Church in the glory of God.
The first of these two sections begins with the door opened in heaven, in chapter 4, and goes on to the judgment of the wicked dead, ending at verse 18 of chapter 11. The second portion, or the recapitulation, giving details omitted in the former part, begins with the temple of God opened in heaven (and the ark of His covenant, speaking of His relation to Israel, seen), in verse 19, and goes on to the final judgment of chapter 20. The balance of the book is a kind of appendix, setting forth the glories of the Bride the Lamb’s wife, the heavenly Jerusalem.
It will be noticed that in the beginning of the first section, four and twenty crowned priests are seen in heaven, robed in white and sitting upon thrones, surrounding the throne of God and the Lamb. Unquestionably these are the heavenly saints who have been translated to glory at the coming of the Lord for His own, according to 1 Thessalonians 4, as seen in the chapter on the Mystery of the Rapture. God is now about to draw His sword for the final conflict, but He takes care to gather His own to Himself ere the judgments fall.
In chapter 5 the Lamb alone is found worthy to take the seven-sealed book—the title-deeds to the earth that once cast Him out. As fast as He breaks the seals, judgments against which men harden themselves fall upon the earth that refused Him, as set forth in chapter 6:8, and 9.
Chapter 7 is a parenthesis, letting us know that, even in that dreadful hour of His wrath, a remnant of Israel, and a great multitude of the heathen nations, shall (as we have already, I trust, seen clearly), be saved for the earth, and the earthly aspect of the millennial kingdom.
The opening of the seventh seal releases the entire scroll, and seven angels who stand before God are given seven trumpets. As Israel of old sounded the trumpets of Jehovah’s judgment about Jericho prior to its terrible fall, so these shall sound the downfall of all that man and Satan have built up throughout the ages.
Six of these trumpets sound in chapter 8 and 9. And, as a parenthesis occurred between the sixth and the seventh seal, so here we have another one between the last two trumpets.
The mighty angel of chapter 10, who comes down from heaven, can be none other than the blessed Lord Himself. What created being could be so described? He is “clothed with a cloud (the cloud of the divine glory): and a rainbow was upon His head, and His face was as it were the sun (supreme majesty), and His feet as pillars of fire.” Moreover He has the now-opened scroll in His hand, and, as Possessor of all created things, He puts His right foot upon the sea, and His left foot upon the earth. Lifting up His hand to heaven, He “sware by Him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be no longer delay: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, THE MYSTERY OF GOD SHOULD BR FINISHED, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets” (vers. 6:7).
John is then commanded to eat the book; for prophecy consists not of idle words, or mere intellectual instruction, but is to be received into the heart, that it may enable the man of God to live now in the light of then.
The first fourteen verses of chapter 11 Continue the parenthesis, setting forth the Lord’s care for Jerusalem and His judgment on the apostate portion of the nation. The climax is reached in verse 15, when the seventh angel sounds, “and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The world-kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, has come; and He shall reign forever and ever.” This involves the complete overthrow of San’s power, hence of all evil, and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness. Thus the Millennium and the day of judgment at its close are all anticipated. Therefore “the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their thrones, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come: because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest dtroy them which destroy the earth” (vers. 16-18).
Thus the secret of God will be finished, and evil will be seen to be but the dark background against which His grace and His holiness will stand out in bolder relief than if sin had never been permitted to lift up its head in the universe.
As stated above, the second part of the prophecy travels over the same ground, reaching its climax in the judgment of the great white throne. The millennial reign of Christ will be a time of rewards for His saints, and will close with judgment on His adversaries.
This world, yea, the entire universe, may be likened to a business which has become demoralized through wicked devices, and is therefore put into the hands of a receiver, that its affairs may be straightened out. When all is established in order, the receivership comes to an end.
Such a Receiver is our Lord Jesus Christ. Man, ruled by Satan, has hopelessly ruined himself and all over which he was set by God. Jesus is given the receivership. He will bring order out of the existing chaos, and put everything right. “Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.... And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15.)
Thus will the receivership be accomplished—evil banished, righteousness triumphant, the mystery finished, and God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—be all in all throughout an eternity of bliss, in which iniquity shall never again rear its head! But none in that unending day of God will sing so sweet a song as those who once were sinners lost and guilty, yea, vile and loathsome too, but who have been saved by grace divine, and shall forever praise the Lamb who died, and extol the precious blood that cleansed from sin’s pollution. Had there been no sin, there could have been no Saviour; and oh, how great the loss, to have known our Lord as Sovereign and Creator, but not as the One who died to redeem us to God with His own blood, thus to bind our hearts to Himself for all the ages to come.
“One string there is of sweetest tone,
Reserved for sinners saved by grace;
‘Tis sacred to one class alone,
And touched by one peculiar race.
“Though angels may with rapture see
How mercy flows in Jesus’ blood,
It is not theirs to prove, as we,
The cleansing virtue of this flood.”
—Taos. Kelly.