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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 5

Section 2 Subsection 3

(b). Sealed up with Seven Seals (continued)


 
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The Sixth Vial has primarily to do with the eastern section of the fourth beast territory. Its judgments are poured out upon the Euphratean district, where the third part of the men of the Laodicean Apostasy had been politically killed by the messenger powers confined, until loosed, by the Euphrates. Under this vial the time comes to dry up the power which keeps them in vassalage and subject. Not, however, for their sake, and for their restoration to their former position, but as a preparation for the establishment of that EASTERN KINGDOM which is to be possessed by the Theistic Kings, the Saints, and is to rule over all the earth.

 

This vial is divisible into four parts, each part being characterized by a notable series of events. The drying up of the Euphrates is characteristic of the first part; the political wonder-working of the frog-like spirits of demons, the second; the Eternal Spirit’s advent in Jesus and the Saints, the third; and the postadventual gathering of the powers that be into Armageddon, the fourth.

The second part has to do with the whole Laodicean Habitable apportioned to the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, whose policies developed by the machinations of the Frog Power bring them into position for conflict with Jesus and his Brethren, styled "the war of the great day of Ail-shaddai," or God Almighty.

The third part has to do with the affairs of the Saints exclusively, and belongs to the things written on the inside of the scroll. It announces the appearance of "the Lord, the Spirit," and the blessing at this time of all Saints who shall not be found naked or uncovered. In this part of the sixth vial, "the King comes in to see the guests furnished for the wedding" (Matt. xxii. 10,11); and to scrutinize them, that it may be seen who of them are fit associates for his majesty, and who are not. At this epoch "the Great White Throne" is placed, styled by Paul in Rom. xiv. 10; and 2 Cor. v. 10, "the Judgment Seat of Christ," before which all constitutionally in Christ appear. They stand before it bodies, or living souls, such as Adam was when he was created from dust of the ground. Their resurrection brings them back to nature, and so restores to them identity, and enables them to "give account of themselves to God." Paul will be there to give account of himself among the rest. All called saints, who by the gospel have been invited to the Kingdom, who cannot give a good account of themselves; who, in other words, have been "walking after the flesh, or sowing to the flesh," between their immersion into Christ and their death, will be pronounced "naked," not having "watched and kept their garments." These will therefore be put to shame and contempt, and will be condemned to "receive things in body" accordant with their deeds (Matt. xvi. 27; Rom. ii. 6). Negatively, they will not be "accepted of Christ;" they will not be "clothed upon with the house from heaven;" "immortality will" not "be swallowed up of life;" they will not be permitted to "eat of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of the Deity;" but affirmatively, they will be "injured by second death;" they will be "blotted out of the book of the living;" they will "die" and "reap corruption" (Apoc. ii. 11; Psa. lxix. 28; Rom. viii. 13; Gal. vi. 8). Thus, they will receive in bodies natural "bad things" according to their previous works, which they could not do if by resurrection per se they were of necessity incorruptible and immortal.

Judgment at the house of God being ended (1 Pet. iv. 17) by the separation of the good and bad fish enclosed by the gospel net (Matt. xiii. 47,48), the good are appropriated by the Lamb for future use. Cleansed and purified from tares they constitute the wheat of his garner. All "false brethren," and mere pretenders, not having on the wedding garment, being cast into outer darkness, those who are accepted by the King as "holy, unblamable, and irreproachable in his sight" (Col. i. 22), "enter in through the gates into the holy city" (Apoc. xxii. 14); and become "the 144,000 having the Lamb’s Father’s name written on their foreheads" (xiv. 1). These accepted ones are the saints to whom judgment is given for the destruction of the Fourth Beast (Dan. vii. 22,26). "They follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth" in all the scenes and enterprizes of "the war of the great day of Ail-Shaddai," until they are seen no longer as the Rainbowed Angel with feet as pillars of fire (x. 1); but under the new aspect of Divine Harpers standing on a sea of crystal, no longer "mingled with fire," as the conquerors of the beast and all pertaining to that hateful dominion, singing the song of victory -- the song of Moses and the Lamb (xv. 2).

Thus, the events of this third part of the sixth vial are an organization and preparation of the Stone-Power -- the cutting of the Stone out of the mountain without hands (Dan. ii. 45); for the work of smiting Nebuchadnezzar’s Image on the feet, and of reducing the broken pieces to powder, light as the chaff of the summer threshing floors, that all may be carried away of the tempest and found no more. The Stone-Power is constituted of the Eternal Spirit, or Deity, manifested in Jesus and the Saints, "glorified together," and directing and leading the tribes of Israel, and the mixed multitude commingled with them. At this time, and thus officered and commanded, Israel will have arrived at "their latter end;" have been made "willing;" and have been energized for "one to chase a thousand, and for two to put ten thousand of their enemies to flight" (Deut. xxxii. 29,30). "Yahweh Elohim," the Spirit incarnate in Jesus and his Brethren, "is with them; and the shout of the King is among them." They have now "the strength of the unicorn; and are risen up as a great lion, and lifted up as a young lion; and shall not lie down until he devour the prey, and drink the blood of the slain." The time now comes for the King of Israel to be higher than Gog, or Agag; and for his kingdom to be exalted. Thus officered, and commanded by Michael the Great Prince, "he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows." In this third part of the sixth vial, the Star of Jacob prepares to shine forth as Israel’s Sceptre, and to smite the princes of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth -- him that remaineth of the city (Num. xxiii. 21,24; xxiv. 7,8,14,17-19).

The saints being "gathered together unto Christ," his day is come; and the due season at length arrived for the consumption and destruction of the Lawless One by the spirit of his mouth, and the manifestation of his presence (2 Thess. ii. 1-8). All things being thus ready, the messenger-power of the Sixth vial proceeds to the gathering of the kings of the earth, and of the whole habitable, into Armageddon. This introduces the fourth part of the vial, and creates the situation necessary to the parallel outpouring of the seventh. In this fourth section of the vial-period the peoples will associate themselves against Israel, in whose midst Immanuel now is; and, under the fiery flying serpent of Assyria, will rush as the rushing of many waters, and with the sound of the roaring seas, to spoil and scatter them (Isa. viii. 9,10; xiv. 25,29; xvii. 12-14). They will ascend like a storm-cloud to cover the land in this the day of Yahweh’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion (Isa. xxxiv. 1-8; lxiii. 1-6). He will cause them to come up from the north parts, and bring them upon the mountains of Israel, which are the apocalyptic "Armageddon" (Ezek. xxxviii. 9; xxxix. 2,4). There, under the king of the north, encamped between the seas, even to the mountain of the glory of the holy (Dan. xi. 41,45) will they be gathered against Jerusalem to besiege and take it, and rifle it, and to make captives of its residue (Zech. xiv. 2). But they will not find therein the King of Israel. By this gathering of all nations against Jerusalem, in tempestuous conflict among themselves for the possession of the holy city, which becomes to them "a cup of trembling," and "a burdensome stone" (Zech. xii. 2,3) the judgments of the Sixth vial are closed. It will have assembled the Laodicean and other heathen in that part of Armageddon called in Joel "the valley of Jehoshaphat;" where Yahweh Elohim, the Spirit incarnate in the Saints, will sit in judgment upon them. "The mighty ones" of the Spirit having descended into the arena, or valley of decision or threshing, and its fats overflowing with multitudes upon multitudes of wicked, "the great and terrible day of Yahweh" is about to shine forth in their overthrow and destruction (Joel iii. 9-14).

The fourth section of the Seventh Seal is the seventh and last vial. The judgments of this pertain emphatically to "the great and terrible day of Yahweh," styled in ch. xiv. 7, "the Hour of his Judgment." It is "the consummation of the seventh seal, which fills up the wrath of Deity" upon the Laodicean Apostasy. It is the vial-period in which the sea of nations is mingled with the fiery indignation of the Eternal Spirit (xv. 2). It begins with Yahweh going forth to fight against the assembled nations; and in vanquishing them in Armageddon, to stand upon the Mount of Olives preparatory to his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Zech. xiv. 3-4; ix. 9,10; Psa. xxiv. 7-10; cxviii. 26; Matt. xxiii. 39; Apoc. xiv. 1). This defeat consummates the outpouring of the seventh vial upon "the Air" -- it shakes the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; it shakes all nations to the overthrow of the throne of kingdoms and the destruction of the strength of their dominions (Hag. ii. 6,7,21,22; Joel iii. 15,16). Consequent upon the full exhaustion of the vial is the darkening of the sun and moon, and the extinguishing of the stars of the Gentile aerial, by the bathing of Yahweh’s sword therein. In the words of the Spirit, "all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree" (Isa. xxxiv. 4,5; Joel iii. 15); and as a consequence, he before whose face this earth and heaven flee away (Apoc. xx. 11) appropriates the world’s kingdoms to himself and friends (xi. 15).

The overthrow of the armies of the nations in Armageddon is the manifestation of the end. Subsequently to the defeat of the enemy, by which the king effects his entrance into the Holy City, he issues a proclamation, styled "a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne," announcing that "It is done" (xvi. 17; xxi. 16). What is done? "That which is determined" -- the full accomplishment of the indignation which scatters the power of the holy people (Dan. xi. 36; xii. 7). The "time of the end" is finished when the angel-power of the seventh vial has poured out all the wrath upon "the air" of the Nebuchadnezzar-Image: the "time, times, and a half," or 1260 years of Dan. xii. 7, are expired; and the 1335 years of verse 12 also. This exhaustion of the indignation is styled "the consummation" in Dan. ix. 27. The indignation hath its first end and its "last end" (Dan. viii. 19) and between these two ends a long intermediate interval of centuries of desolation. The seventh vial is identical with "the last end," in which the Little Horn of the Goat power, "the king who doth according to his will," "the Assyrian" (Mic. v. 5), "Gog of the land of Magog," "the King of the north," Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, the four great beasts from the sea, "the dragon," "the Beast and his Image," the ten horns -- all terms representing "the kingdom of men" -- will stand up in battle array against the Prince of princes and his faithful and chosen followers. But affliction comes upon the tents of Cushan, and those of the land of Midian are made to tremble at the Ensign lifted up upon the mountain of Israel (Hab. iii. 7; Isa. xviii. 3). Great and terrible is the power of the Holy One in the judgments of the seventh vial. "He stands, and measures the earth; he beholds and drives asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains are scattered, and the perpetual hills do bow"; or, in the words of Apoc. xvi. 20, "every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but he who comes with dyed garments from Edom, is with burning and fuel of fire (Isa. ix. 5; lxiii. 1-6; lxvi. 15,16). The armies of the kingdom of men issue forth as a whirlwind to scatter him; but vain are all their efforts; for He will march through the earth in indignation, and thresh the nations in anger; for he goes forth for the salvation of his people, and he will not be foiled.

"It is done." Is the result of the exhaustion of this vial upon "the air," the fourth beast of Daniel’s vision will have been totally destroyed in all its parts, and the kingdom of God established as the sole political organization for the government of the nations. It will then be said, "Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith Adonai Yahweh; this is the day whereof I have spoken -- whereof he has spoken by his servants the prophets that he would break the power of the Gentiles, when saviours should come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the Kingdom should be to Yahweh" (Ezek. xxxix. 8; Obad. xxi.).

Such is the general result of the Seventh vial upon "the air." There are, however, certain stages through which judgment passes to the subversion of the existing order of things, and the establishment of that which is to last unchanged for a thousand years -- "the world to come." This fourth section of the Seventh Seal is divisible into two acts, or summaries of detail. The first relates to what may be styled, the first angel mission of the seventh vial; the second, to the second and third angel missions of the same. The first angel mission forewarns the nations of what is prepared to burst forth upon them. It announces that the Hour of Judgment has actually arrived; and declares the glory of Yahweh among the Gentiles inhabiting Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, Javan, and the isles afar off from Jerusalem (Isa. lxvi. 19; Apoc. xiv. 6). This manifesto is proclaimed after the advent and resurrection, and separation of the tares from the wheat at the judgment seat of Christ, and occupation of Jerusalem by the great king, and before the fall of Babylon by certain "of those who escape." They are sent as moshkai kesheth, "sounders of truth," to blow the great trumpet of the jubilee, and to invite all nations to do homage to the King of the Jews (Isa. xviii. 3; xxvii. 13; lxvi. 19; Lev. xxv. 10; Apoc. x. 11). To this proclamation succeeds the day of affliction, in which a great sacrifice is offered by Yahweh for the birds and beasts of prey -- "the flesh of the mighty, and the blood of the princes of the earth" (Lev. xxiii. 27-32; Ezek. xxxix. 17; Apoc. xix. 17).

The offering of this sacrifice is the punishment of the goats (Zech. x. 3-6; Matt. xxv. 31-46); and constitutes the second act of this fourth section of the seventh seal. The offering is the mission of the mighty angel with the rainbow upon his head, whose countenance is as the sun, and his progress as moving pillars of fire (Apoc. x). He places his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth, and thus takes up a burning position upon the territory of the ten-horned, and two-horned beasts of ch. xiii. "The earth and the whole habitable" thus become an arena of intense conflagration, in which the Gentile body politic is given to the sword and the burning flame (Dan. vii. 10,11): "the sea" is mingled with fire, and "the earth" becomes "a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (xv. 2; xix. 20): "the Aion-Fire prepared for the Devil (Dragon, xx. 2) and his angels" (Matt. xxv. 41); into which all are cast who are condemned to share in the punishment inflicted upon the goats (xx. 15; xiv. 9-11).

This rainbowed angel is symbolical of the Eternal Spirit incarnate in Jesus and his Brethren, the glorified saints, in their warfare against "the beast and his image," over which they get the victory. He is the "Four Living Ones full of eyes," in one symbol, giving utterance to the roar of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Joel iii. 16; ii. 11; Jer. xxv. 30-38; Isa. xlii. 13-16). What proceeds from the company of actors represented by this symbol, "proceeds from the throne," whence issue forth "lightnings, thunderings, and voices" (iv. 5). The rainbowed messenger is the embodiment of "the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne" -- of the "seven horns and seven eyes, the seven spirits of the Deity, sent forth into all the earth" (iv. 5; v. 6). "When he had cried," or made the proclamation pertaining to the first angel mission, which is responded to by the armies of the Ten Horns rushing forth as a whirlwind to scatter him (Hab. iii. 14; Apoc. xvii. 14) "seven thunders utter their voices" (x. 3). The details of these thunders are not specified. They will become history to be read by the generations to come when they shall have thundered down all opposition to the dominion of the saints. It would have swelled the apocalypse to an unwieldy size, and have greatly augmented its complications, to have recorded in detail the utterances of these thunders. John was therefore commanded to "seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and to write them not." Hence, all we can say about them is, that as "thunder," which implies lightning, is the symbol of destruction, the seven thunders augur only a bitter practical prophecy to many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings (ver. 9,11).

But in the hand of this mighty heaven-descended Spirit-Messenger, not naked spirit, but "clothed with a cloud" of the holy and blessed of the Father, is "a little scroll open." It is not closed or rolled up like the seven-sealed scroll, but open and unsealed. It is the scroll of judgments in bitter manifestation, in current outflow from the body of John and his coworkers in the execution of the judgments written (x. 9; Psa. cxlix. 5-9). It contains the denouement of the apocalyptic tragedy -- the issue of the plot, or, as Daniel was informed, "the end of the matter."

In this little open scroll is written the performances of the actors in the second and last act of the fourth section of the seventh seal. It is, therefore, the key that opens or unlocks "the Mystery of the Deity as he hath declared the glad tidings to his servants the prophets" (x. 7). Upon it are inscribed the missions of the second and third angels, comprehensive of the judgment of Babylon, the conquest of the Ten Horns and destruction of the Beast, and the slaying of "the remnant" not included in the symbol, by the white-robed battalions of the King of kings and Lord of lords (ch. xix).

The mission of the second angel is to destroy "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and the Abominations of the earth" (xiv. 8). It is a work of the saints to do this; for she is "drunk with their blood, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus" (xvii. 6; xviii. 4-8). Hence, they are the messenger-power of the second mission. They enlighten the nations with the glory of the coworking Spirit, so that they bring into contempt the Laodicean Apostasy in its Greek, Latin, and Protestant manifestations, causing the spiritual merchants of all privileged and unprivileged sects of "Christendom" to weep and mourn, "because no man buyeth their merchandise any more" (xviii. 11).

The Ecclesiastical Corporation of the Fourth Beast, by the abundance of whose spiritual delicacies the great men of all nations, styled demons, foul spirits, unclean and hateful birds, had waxed rich (xviii. 2,3,23), being tormented to utter and final extinction from "the Air" (vers. 8,15,21) by the second symbolic angel, or Yahweh Elohim and the Saints (vers. 6,8), they continue their work in the mission of the third angel to the tormentation and destruction of the beast and false prophet-power in their civil and military organizations. The adherents of these constitutions bewail and lament the breaking up of the priest and clergy craft of "Christendom" (ver. 9,10), showing that their political existence continues beyond the fall of that "Mystery of Iniquity." These, therefore, become the next object against which "the holy messengers and the Lamb" direct their exterminating judgments (xiv. 9-11). This work of destruction continues so long as the smoke of their torment ascends, which is till the body of the beast is destroyed by the burning flame that issues forth from before the Ancient of Days, or, as it is apocalyptically expressed, eis aionas aionon, to aions of aions, which is to the commencement of the thousand years’ reign (Dan. vii. 10,11; 2 Thess. ii. 8; Apoc. xiv. 10,11).

This whole burnt-sacrifice of the fourth beast in the day of Yahweh’s vengeance would have consummated the tragic drama of the apocalypse had there been no Gentile Remnant beyond the jurisdiction of the fourth beast. Had Daniel’s vision presented before him only one beast, then there would have been no more to do than to celebrate the victory, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and so enter upon the reign. Or, had Nebuchadnezzar’s Image consisted only of one metal, and been pulverized by a single blow of the stone upon the feet, the stone would at once have become a great mountain filling the whole earth. But these suppositions do not obtain. There are four beasts to be disposed of, and four metals, and a grinding of the whole to powder after the fracture of their image-combination by the stone. The fourth beast and the iron teeth and brazen claws thereof being in process of demolition by the second and third angel missions, "the remnant" (xix. 21), or "dragon" (xx. 2,3), or first three beasts of Dan. vii. 4,5,6,12, are being also collaterally and coetaneously subjected to the sword of the King of kings and his white-robed squadrons of the heaven. This great potentate, riding this "white cloud" or body of celestial horse (xix. 11,14), "having on his head a golden wreath and in his hand a sharp sickle" (xiv. 14,15), reaps the harvest of the earth, and gathers the clusters of the earth’s vine, and casts them into the great winepress "without the city," which he treads in anger, making them drunk in his fury, and so brings down their strength to the earth (Isa. lxiii. 1-6; Joel iii. 13; Apoc. xiv. 20).

The result of the reaping the harvest and treading the great winepress is the binding of the Dragon-power and the shutting of it up in the abyss for a thousand years; in other words, the taking away of the dominion of the Assyrian lion, the Medo-Persian bear, and the Greco-Egypto-Anglican leopard, for a season and a time (Dan. vii. 12). These organizations of peoples are not destroyed, as was the Babylonian fourth beast embodying the Laodicean Apostasy. They are conquered and deprived of dominion, which is transferred to their conquerors the saints, who will have brought down their strength with a sanguinary and mighty overthrow. Thus, Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Khush, Elam, Shinar, and the islands of the sea, will have felt the edge of their two-edged sword, as well as Europe and the West; for, like birds of prey, their tribes will "fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the West; they will spoil them of the East together; they will lay their power upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them" (Isa. xi. 11,14). The face and condition of the East will then be altogether changed. With the present spiritual and temporal constitution of "Christendom" destroyed, and the East brought into subjection to Deity, the nations will then be truly "blessed with" and "in Abraham and his seed," as predicted in the gospel of the kingdom. Yahweh will be made known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know Yahweh in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation ... In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land; whom Yahweh Tz’vaoth shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance (Isa. xix. 21-25).

As to the leopard, or "Philistines toward the west," the third beast, of which Egypt is a part, Tarshish and Javan, these also become a spoil in the war of the great day of Yahweh Ail-Shaddai. The Tyrian commerce of the Great Sea is turned from Britain to Palestine as a flowing stream; and "her merchandise and her hire is holiness to Yahweh -- it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before Yahweh, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing" (Isa. xxiii. 18; lx. 5,9; lxi. 6; lxvi. 12; Psa. xlv. 12; lxxii. 10).

In the development of the second and third angel-missions, and in the harvesting of the earth and treading of its vintage, all the work of the seventh vial will have been accomplished. All its voices, thunders, and lightnings, will have been hushed into eternal silence; the vibrations of the greatest earthquake that ever shook the nations will have ceased their tremblings for ever; the threefold divisions of the great city will all have been confounded in the fall of Babylon, and the flight of every political island, and disappearance of the imperial mountains of ancient date. Jesus and his Brethren, energized by Yahweh, the Eternal Spirit, descending as a tempest of hail, a destroying storm, will have beaten down the Assyrian, and swept away all refuges of lies. The Laodicean Apostasy will have been demolished and for ever abolished; and "the smoke of the temple from the glory of the Deity, and from his power," will all have cleared away, and men will enter into the temple and go out no more (Isa. xxx. 30; xxviii. 2,17; xxxii. 19; Ezek. xxxviii. 22; Apoc. xi. 19; xv. 8; iii. 12; xvi. 17-21). "IT IS DONE." "The Air" is purified of "the spirituals of wickedness in the heavenlies" (Eph. vi. 12), and nothing remains but for the victorious saints and the conquered world of nations to celebrate the victory.
 
 

Such is a brief sketch of this remarkable prophecy, outlined in the light of the prophets, the testimony of history, and the reality of what exists, truly brought out by the unerring principles of apostolic truth. The Apocalypse is its own evidence of its divine authenticity. Its perfect harmony with Moses and the prophets, the discourses of Christ Jesus, and the teachings of all the apostles; its unique and inimitable structure, and its complete frustration of all the attempts of "the wise and prudent" to comprehend it (Matt. xi. 25), are evidences that it originated, not from John or any other of his learned or unlearned contemporaries, but from the mind of Him to whom are known all his works from the beginning. It brings to nothing "the understanding of the prudent," and resolves into outer darkness the wisdom of all the world’s rulers and soul-merchants, in whatever name or denomination they may rejoice in Church and State. "If any man will do the Father’s will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of the Deity" (John vii. 17). No man can do his will who is not intelligent in "the truth as it is in Jesus;" because his will demands an enlightened obedience. A man, therefore, who is not an enlightened believer, is essentially deficient in the prime prerequisite qualification of an interpreter and critic of interpretations. This is the reason why there is not a single scriptural interpretation of the apocalypse extant from the days of Sir Isaac Newton to the current year. Many attempts have been made, but they have all proved failures; because their "wise and prudent" authors, being the mere embodiments of the dogmatic pietism sanctified in the world’s opinion by the "names of blasphemy" of which "the scarlet colored beast," in contemporary existence with Christ’s advent, is "full" (xvii. 3), are necessarily ignorant of "the first principles of the oracles of God." A man cannot be loyal and true to his Romish or Protestant creed and understand the apocalypse. His head will be full of immortal soulism, heaven beyond the realms of time and space, purgatory, mariolatry and saint-worship, eternal subterranean hells, baby-ghosts transformed into angels studding the cloudy vapors of the air, and of all other speculations kindred to these. Such a wise and prudent genius mistakes a community of confessed "miserable sinners, assembling in an ecclesiastical temple of the dead, and rejoicing in the Queen as their head, for the Church of Christ, and looks only for saints in "sainted" sinners translated to the skies! Such a "theologian," be he lay or clerical, conformist or dissenter, never has, and never can, understand the apocalypse till he abandons these traditions of the Apostasy.

The author of this work does not address himself to such. He writes of them as an interpretation of the book that delineates the terrible catastrophe coming upon them demands; but he writes for "the servants of the Deity," that they may read and understand. Lest, therefore, the sketch already given should fall short of that simplicity necessary to the comprehension of the apocalypse by the least intelligent of his brethren in Christ, the author invites their attention to the following "Tabular Analysis," which presents, as it were, synoptically, the subject matter of the previous sketch. The method of the Analysis is suggested by the Apocalypse itself. The first general division of the prophecy contains the first five chapters; the second, the seven sealed scroll; the third, that portion pertaining to the introduction of the thousand years’ reign, or kingdom of God; the fourth, the prophecy of millennial blessedness; and the fifth, the prophecy of the "little season." These divisions must not be confounded with the divisions of the scroll; for the two divisions of the scroll are comprehended in the second general division of the prophecy.

The Roman figures, I, II, III, IV, V, prefixed to certain captions of the Analysis, indicate that all following that title belongs to the divisions so numbered.

 

 


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