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Eureka

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

 

 

Chapter 13

Section 2 Subsection 14

The Wounding of One of the Heads


 
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"And I saw one of his heads as if it had been wounded unto death" - verse 3.

John saw one of the heads, which were common to the Dragon and the Beast, "as if it had been wounded unto death." This is as much as to say, that when he saw it lying prostrate, its death was only in appearance; it was not like the five heads that had preceded it. They were killed outright, never to recover sovereignty on the Seven Hills. But not so this Sixth Headship; for, though it seemed to be politically dead to all future sovereignty in Rome, where its supremacy no longer existed, yet the time would arrive when a like form of government would be located within its walls; and IMPERIAL HEADSHIP, as an Eighth Sovereignty, once more elevate "the Eternal City" to the command of the world - in the words of Leo III., to "a wider rule through divine religion, than by the power of earthly domination;" or more correctly, "through the working of the Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." The head had received a severe wound, but not a fatal one; for, says John, "the plague of its death was healed."

The apostle informs us that he saw "one of the heads" in this severely wounded condition; but he does not tell us which one of the seven it was. This he leaves us to find out for ourselves. Is the mystery, then, impenetrable? I think not. Let us see. In Ch. 17:10, the Revelator tells him, in speaking of the Seven Heads, "they are seven sovereign powers; five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space." One is; that is, at the time he was speaking to John in Patmos. The Heads being attached to the Seven Mounts upon which Rome sits, we have only to ascertain what form of Sovereign Power obtained there while John was residing in Patmos. This is well known to have been the Imperial; which is a sovereignty headed up in one or more emperors, uniting in themselves the supreme, civil, spiritual, and military authority of the state. As five sovereign powers had fallen, this must have been the sixth, and only the sixth, because "the other," or seventh, had not then as yet come.

Now, when the sovereign powers of a state fall, they are prostrated by wounding to death. This was the case in the fall, or removal of the five, especially the fifth, to make way for the sixth, which continued a long Space in Rome, or over five hundred years; the Imperial Senate residing on the Seven Hills, and the Imperial Court of the West in Ravenna, and the Imperial Court of the East in Constantinople. This Imperial Sixth Head ruled all the Thirds of the Roman habitable; but, at the end of these centuries, the imperial authority was to be suppressed in Rome, and over the Third Part attached to the jurisdiction of that city. This was to be effected by wounding as if to death. The blowing of the fourth wind-trumpet inflicted the wound by which it was prostrated; so that when John saw it, it had the appearance of a dead head. This death state of the head was a necessary condition for the development of its successor in sovereign power. So long as the sixth flourished in political life on the Seven Hills, a successor could not exist in Rome. The death of the Sixth was indispensable to the manifestation of the Seventh. And it may be noted here that there is nothing more said about the seventh head in this chapter than that the beast had seven heads. It does not seem to perform any important part in the prophecy; nevertheless, as a seventh potentate, coming in between the sixth and the eighth, its presence upon the arena was highly important to the preparation of the way of the full grown Man of Sin. In John's time, "the other," or the seventh, "had not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space." This "short space" was a period of great events. In the course of it, and during the nine decades that ushered it in, the Ten-Horn Sovereignties established themselves upon the western imperial third of the Roman Orb; Rome's imperial dominion was abolished, and, in place thereof, a regal sovereignty was developed upon the seven mountains known in history as the GOTHIC KINGDOM OF ITALY. This was the Seventh Head, which was only to continue "a short space," or sixty years. This passing away of the Sixth Head from Old Rome at the time of its successor, the Seventh Head's inauguration, is thus symbolized in Apoc. 8:12, "and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened." The other two thirds were still unsmitten and left to shine in their proper spheres - two thirds of the sun, two thirds of the moon, and two thirds of the stars: that is, the imperial Sixth Head retained its position in Constantinople, from whence it continued to exercise rule and authority, in all matters, civil and ecclesiastical, over the other unsubdued two thirds of the Roman world.

Under the rule of the Gothic Arian Seventh Head, there was no scope for the development of the imperial tendencies of the Trinitarian Bishop of Rome. However, he might long for Universal Headship over all spiritual concerns of the Roman habitable, his subordination to an Arian kingship was an insuperable obstacle. So long as Arianism was king in Rome, he could not include Italy and that city in his universality. Hence, the policy of Symmachus and his successors would be to procure the ruin of the Seventh Head, and to prevent the return of the Sixth; so that Rome, being freed from the presence of both king and emperor, opportunity would be afforded for their own development into an Image of the Sixth Head upon the Seven Hills.

But of the wounding of the Imperial Sixth, and the establishment of the Regal Seventh, Heads, I need not treat in this place. It will be sufficient here to refer the reader to pages 71,75, Vol.3, for the historical exposition thereof, with this explanatory remark, that the obscuration of Rome's imperial "day and night" would not cease with the fall of the Seventh Head but with the inauguration of the Eighth Head, or Image of the Sixth upon the Seven Hills

 

 


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