The social message of the book of Revelation

BS2825

DEC SO 1920

Division BSl ou5
ion .CI 55

THE SOCIAL MESSAGE

OF THE

BOOK OF REVELATION

my
RAYMOND CALKINS

THE WOMANS PRESS

600 LEXINGTON AVENUE
NEW YORK CITY

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY

The National Board of the Young Womens Christian Associations

op the United States of America

New York

TO HER

whose Life has been to me a

Revelation
of Faith and Hope and Love

lSurely I come quickly. Amen.
Even so come, Lord Jesus."

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction ix

CHAPTEB

I Purpose and Message 1

II Language and Style 10

III The Ethical Value of Apocalyptical Prophecy . 29

IV Outline and Contents 42

V The Introduction and the Messages to the

Churches 49

VI The Eternal Background 69

VII Judgment and Salvation 79

VIII The Sound of the Trumpets 92

IX The Second Interlude 101

X The Dragon and the Beast 115

XI The Beginning of the End 131

XII The Doom of Evil 146

XIII The Blessed Consummation 174

Bibliography 191

INTRODUCTION

THE Book of Revelation is one of the least used and least
understood books in all the Bible. Every Bible reader re-
calls with gratitude a few chapters at the beginning of the
book with their beautiful promises "to him that overcometh" ;
and every one reads a few chapters at the end of the book
which tell of the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, where there
shall be no more curse or pain or death.

But the book as a whole is a closed book to all but a small
minority of Bible readers. To most people, this book, with the
exception of the chapters to which I have referred, is a jargon
of strange figures of speech — a fantastic conglomeration of
beasts with men's heads, of dragons cast into fathomless pits,
of serpents casting floods out of their mouths, of locusts with
the hair of women and tails like scorpions. It is a vast arena
that resounds to noise of battle as trumpets sound, and
seals are broken and vials are emptied. "To most people its
bizarre imagery, its complicated structure, its general unin-
telligibility make it a gigantic riddle. It seems to them, per-
haps, to form a strange anti-climax to that splendid literature
of the soul which preceded it. They are at home in the
Gospels and in the Epistles; but in this strange world of
earthquake and eclipse, of fury and agony, of tramping armies
and thundering angel-music, they are perplexed and repelled." *
Why is this book in the New Testament at all? What does
it mean? Does it mean anything?

If anything were needed to complete the dismay with which
the average Bible reader views this book, it is supplied by
the use which is made of it by those Bible students who

1 Cairns, Christianity in the Modern World, pp. 216-217.

ix

x Introduction

claim that its purpose is to tell us about the end of the
world, the physical second coming of Christ, the millennium,
the second death and the general resurrection. On the basis
of its prophecies, we are told, we can figure out when all
these events will happen, for the book contains the key to all
these mysteries. But because the doctrine of a material mil-
lennium and a physical second coming bewilders and repels
more people than it illumines or attracts, many have closed
their minds more firmly than ever against a book which seems
to contain such teaching. They determine that they will let
the book severely and altogether alone. Thus it has come to
pass that one of the most inspired and inspiring and useful
books in the Bible has been neglected by Bible readers and
Bible students. It has no place in their everyday Bible, the
Bible which they use for the support of their own souls, or
for light upon the pressing problems of the hour. They never
turn to it except in time of personal bereavement. They think
of it, if at all, only as containing beautiful and imaginative
descriptions of Heaven, and promises of crowns of victory
to those who overcome.

As a matter of fact, the Book of Revelation is one of
the most practical books in the Bible. No book in the New
Testament, with the exception of the Gospels, contains so
much inspiration for one who is actively engaged in a daily
struggle against evil in himself and in the world. It is full
of help for all who are wrestling with the problem of evil in
any form. It is a book to be used not only for the light which
it throws upon the future life, but for the streams of light
which it throws upon the life which now is. It is not pri-
marily the vision of another world; it is rather a trumpet-call
for courageous living in the present world. Especially in a
time of rebuilding such as the present, when the problems of
life are so many, its burdens so great, its calls to service so
insistent, the real message of this book is needed by all who
hunger and labor for righteousness.

Introduction xi

The purpose of these pages is to set forth this message
of the Book of Revelation clearly and briefly. They are
written with the general reader in mind as well as Bible stu-
dents and Bible class leaders. They offer an interpretation of
the book which the author believes to be its underlying mes-
sage, and one which is perhaps more suited to the present
than to any other age since the book was first written. It is
now that the Book of Revelation needs to be read and under-
stood. The effort has been made to suggest, rather than to
elaborate, the spiritual lessons of its chapters and to indicate
briefly the meaning of the text. There has been no attempt
to discuss at all completely the many Biblical and historical
problems involved. For these, the reader is referred to more
competent authorities. The idea is to exhibit the one simple
and wonderful truth which, like a golden thread, runs through
all the chapters, and to suggest the permanent social value of
that truth for all militant souls who are enlisted for life as
soldiers of the cross and "followers of the Lamb." The au-
thor hopes that this great Bible book will indeed be a revela-
tion of heretofore unrealized and unutilized sources of faith
and inspiration and courage.

The indebtedness of the writer to other authors has been
indicated in the footnotes. Special acknowledgments are
due to Dr. Beckwith whose admirable recent commentary
has furnished many of the Bible references, and to Dr.
Porter whose volume has suggested many suggestions in
interpretation and in the paraphrases of the text.

Cambridge, Massachusetts.
March, 1920.

SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE
BOOK OF REVELATION

CHAPTER I

PURPOSE AND MESSAGE

THE best and quickest way to understand any book is to
ask why and when it was written. The answer to these
questions makes clear to us the purpose and the message of
the Book of Revelation. This book was first written to meet
an extraordinary emergency in the life of the early church.
It was written to inspire a church beneath the Cross and
threatened with extermination at the hands of the Roman
Empire. The church, when this book made its appearance,
was on the eve of a life and death struggle with Rome. The
signs of the times were all focused on a fierce contest between
rl Christ and Caesar. The Book of Revelation therefore has a
great historic interest for the student of the New Testament,
in that it marks the transition from the earlier tolerant attitude
of Rome toward the new faith to its later implacable hostility.
Readers of the epistles of St. Paul will all remember that he
kept appealing, and not in vain, from the attacks of his
Jewish antagonists, to the protection of the Roman governors
and magistrates. More than once these officials delivered the
Apostle from the hands of the Jews; they rescued him in
Jerusalem from the hands of an angry mob intent on murder-
ing him ; from his prison in Palestine he appealed unto Caesar,
and he urged upon his converts submission to Roman rule
and authority. (Rom. 13:1-5.)

1

•

2 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

Thirty years after his death, however, all this was changed.
The Roman Empire realized at last that the Christian faith
was challenging its authority and had become its irreconcilable
rival. In the Book of Revelation we have the first expression
of the Christian faith as it asserted itself and took its stand
over against the great world power which had now become its
outspoken enemy. It was inevitable that Rome and Christian-
ity should come to grips. When the Book of Revelation was
written, that time had arrived. "The historical background
of the book is the Roman Empire, and especially the worship
of the emperors and its enforcement in Asia Minor." *

During the reign of Domitian, who died in the year 96 A.D.,
an edict had gone forth that his subjects, especially in Asia
Minor, should worship him as God. All students of Roman
history are familiar with this strange and almost unbelievable
cult which developed in the later days of the Roman Empire.
Augustus had declined to be thus worshiped in Rome, but he
had encouraged it in the provinces, probably as a means of
knitting them more firmly to the Empire and to the Emperor.
"It was not meant to displace the nature religions but to have
recognition by their side, in a more or less close relation to
them. It was valued by the emperors as an effective means of
Romanizing the empire and hence was furthered especially
where Roman culture did not prevail, and in the Orient where
it would cause least offense. It was, in fact, offensive only to
monotheistic faiths, Judaism and Christianity, which could not
worship God and Csesar. In general the Jews fared better
than the Christians during this period." a Both Caesar and
Augustus had granted exemption to the Jews because of their
numbers and because of their well-known aversion to idolatrous
practices. Rome was not inclined to grant these privileges to
Christians. During the reign of Nero, this policy of enforcing
emperor-worship in the provinces had steadily grown. It was
developed by Caligula; but it came to its climax in Domitian's

1 See Porter, Messages of the Apocalyptical Writers, p. 185.
'Porter, ibid., pp. 185-186.

PURPOSE AND MESSAGE 3

time, in Asia Minor where the earliest Christian churches had
been planted. There for the first time it was proposed that
this cult should be enforced by law and backed by all the
power of the Roman government.

We have no details. We do not even possess the wording
of the edict. But we have the facts. Sometime about 90 A.D.,
under the Emperor Domitian and presumably with his ap-
proval, this worship of the Emperor was enforced in Asia
Minor by the priests of the cult and the governors of the prov-
inces. Only the Jews were to be exempt. The Orientals
accepted the new worship with enthusiasm. There was left to
resist only the little and apparently helpless band of Chris-
tians. When the Book of Revelation was written, that was
the situation. Rome and Christianity were at last face to
face.

We do not know how far compulsion had already gone
when the book was written. Presumably there had already
been a few martyrdoms (Rev. 2:13), but there was every
reason to expect a general persecution of the church, as
Rome set itself to the task of exterminating Christianity. To
the church in such an hour of peril the Book of Revelation
is addressed. It calls on all who have named the Name of
Christ to be faithful to the end. It unfolds vast and in-
spiring visions of the power of God and of the omnipotence
of Christ. It tells of the deathlessness of his saints and of
the certainty of victory. It predicts the downfall of Rome and
the destruction of evil. It calls on Christ's followers to
mobilize to meet the enemy; to fight, to endure, to suffer, to
die for the sake of the Name; and it promises to all who
overcome a crown of life.

If we understand the emergency which caused the book to
be written, the interpretation of it for its time, for our time,
and for all time, becomes as clear as daylight! In the light
of this explanation, how far from the truth becomes that use
of it which finds the chief meaning of the book in the hints
it gives us about the wind-up of creation, the end of the world,

4 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF KEVELATION

and the nature of the Last Judgment! As a matter of fact,
there is only one chapter that even appears to refer to these
distant and mysterious events. To use Revelation in this way
is to abuse it, for the book itself makes no claim to be a key
to the future. "The predictions in the book relate to the im-
mediate and not to the remote future, as the writer most ex-
plicitly afl&rms" (1:1,3; 22:10-12), and its value lies "not
in disclosures of history in the nineteen following centuries,
nor of forecasts of still future events . . . , but rather in its
fitness to brace the Christian faith to meet one of the great
crises of its history, and permanently in the faith that in-
spires it in the rule of God and the certain victory of his
cause." We must put out of our mind the ideas which centuries
of misuse have caused to prevail about the book. The beast
is not the Sultan or the Pope of Rome or Napoleon or the
Kaiser, but rather Nero and the Emperor Domitian whom the
Christians had been commanded to worship. The harlot is
not the church of Rome, as certain Protestant writers have
declared, but rather the Roman Empire which had decreed the
death of all who failed to worship its head as God. All the
conglomerate figures that fill the book are the hosts of those
who fight either on the side of the beast or on the side of
the lamb. Here we have the "cry of the Christian heart tor-
tured by the pressure of the Pagan Empire." Here we have
Christian prophecy directed against contemporary evil, and
designed to rescue contemporary Christianity from overthrow,
to inspire it to resistance, and to predict its victory in the time
in which its author lived.

It requires no great gift of imagination to realize what such
a flaming message must have meant to that church beneath the
cross; what inspiration it brought to those threatened with
death; what consolation it gave to those whose friends may
already have suffered death "for the sake of the Name";
what joy it yielded to those who read these horrific descrip-
tions of how their persecutors were to be destroyed, of how
wicked and cruel Rome, the mother of abominations, drunk

PURPOSE AND MESSAGE 5

with the blood of saints, was to go down in the crash and
wreck of ruin as she is made desolate by famine and plague,
and is cast into the lake of fire. With what exaltation of
spirit do you imagine they would respond to that vision of the
Holy City, the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; or read of that
coming day when God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor
crying, when the former things are passed away?

Such, then, was the particular spiritual emergency which
caused this book to be written. It was a flaming Tract of
Faith for Bad Times. It was intended to encourage God's
people under oppression and suffering. Its object was to steel
them to patience and endurance by the presentation in vivid
form of the fact that overrides all other facts, that the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth and will come with a recompense.
Understand the crisis which called this book forth, and its
spiritual value becomes clear as crystal. In the flaming up
of faith in the hour of darkness lies the wonder of Revelation.
In its extraordinary exaltation of spirit, when apparently
there is no rift in the clouds, nor sign of hope anywhere, lies
its permanent religious value. In the sheer strength of its
proclamation of victory, when nothing but defeat and death
are apparently visible, lies its claim to the gratitude and love
of Christians for all time.

Such a book could not possibly end its mission with the par-
ticular circumstances that called it forth. It is an immortal
appeal to fortitude and to faith whenever and wherever evil
threatens the good, wrong apparently triumphs over right,
and the children of God are overborne by the forces of sin.
All through the centuries of Christian struggle this has been
the book of comfort and of hope for the witnessing servants
of Jesus Christ. Centuries later when the growing church was
in its final death-grapple with the Roman Empire — a struggle
which issued in a far greater victory than even the seer of
Patmos was able to discern, the Christianization of Rome itself

6 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

— this book above all others sustained the courage and ani-
mated the faith of those who bore witness to their faith with
their lives. In the days of the Reformation when thousands
were called upon to die for the liberty of conscience, the free-
dom of the soul, and the purity of faith, no part in the Bible
was read with greater fervor than this inspired book which
still spoke of the certainty of victory and the triumph of the
faithful. More than one Christian martyr had died with the
last words of this book upon his lips : "Surely I come quickly :
even so, come, Lord Jesus." And to-day, for the lonely mis-
sionary confronting single-handed and alone the great solid
and apparently immovable evils entrenched in non-Christian
civilizations, for the social worker with his back to the wall
fighting against the hosts of wickedness in high places, to
the individual Christian who feels the hot breath of evil in
his face and does not know how he is to overcome it, there
is no inspiration in the Bible to be compared with that of
this Book of Revelation.

Days like those in which we live are the very days for
which this book was written. A time such as the present, is
the time for Christians everywhere to take up this book and
read it, and to lay its true message next to their hearts. It
is sheer tragedy to go through experiences such as this genera-
tion has known without the spiritual support and inspiration
which Revelation can furnish us. We are living in an epoch
that corresponds to that for which the book was written. Evil
seems to be on the throne. The destinies of the world are at
stake. Cruelty has done its worst. If ever people needed
bracing, we need it now. If ever mankind needed the mes-
sage of this book, it needs that message now. "Fear none of
these things that thou shalt suffer; behold the devil shall cast
some of you into prison that ye may be tried and ye shall
have tribulation ten days; be thou faithful unto death and
I will give thee a crown of life." Read about the beast, your
beast that threatens you with destruction, and read how the
Lamb on the throne shall overcome him, for he is Lord of

PURPOSE AND MESSAGE 7

Lords and King of Kings. Listen to the song of the redeemed
who chant their psalms of deliverance and victory, who reign
forever and forever, and remember that the same victory is
yours if you, like them, will be faithful to the end.

The book contains five distinct and imperishable spiritual
messages for its time and for all time.

1. It is an irresistible summons to heroic living. To read
Revelation aright makes one ashamed if he has not thrown
himself body and soul into the struggle for righteousness. It
is the most militant book in the Bible. It tells us that there
is no place for a neutral in the everlasting fight between God
and Satan, the Dragon and the Lamb. The laissez-faire Chris-
tian will feel lost in this book; he will not answer to its mes-
sage because he does not feel himself involved in its issues.
But the truly militant Christian who feels that his own life
is bound up with these issues, simply cannot do without its
appeal to fortitude and its assurance of victory.

2. This book contains matchless appeals to endurance. "Hold
fast that which thou hast that no man take thy crown." "Be
ye faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life."
We all know the almost hypnotic effect of certain phrases,
the strange impression they produce upon the psychology of
a soul. The words, "They shall not pass !" made the defenders
of Verdun a rampart of steel. Precisely this is the influence
produced by the message of the Book of Revelation upon those
who lay it to heart. Yielding becomes a psychological im-
possibility. One lays it down and says, "To doubt would be
disloyalty, to falter would be sin." That is why in any period
of discouragement, such as the world is now experiencing,
this book should be read and re-read. It can contribute im-
mensely to the morale of mankind. Moral endurance will tell
the story in fateful years such as these. The reading of
no literature in the world will do more to heighten cour-
age, hearten faith, steel men's souls to patience and to the
uttermost limits of endurance as the reading of this old,
neglected Book of Revelation.

8 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

3. This book tells us that evil is marked for overthrow in
the end. Here is to be no inconclusive struggle, no stale-
mate, no peace without victory. It is not to be an easy or
a speedy triumph. Nothing in all this book is more wonder-
ful than the full justice that is done to the powers of evil.
Behind their manifestations and their effects, the prophet
goes to the real source of their strength — to Satan and his
angels who have for a season all power to make war upon the
servants of the Lamb. We do not know just when the end
may be. Satan may be bound for a while and then break loose
again. The end may not even be in sight. Victory may mean
the death and martyrdom of many of the saints of Christ.
But, in the end, the powers of darkness are marked for de-
struction. Whatever else evil is here for, it is here to be
conquered. It is not Christ who is going to be defeated:

And the beast was taken and with him the false prophet
. . . and they twain shall be cast alive into the lake of fire
burning with brimstone and the remnant were slain with
the sword of him who sat upon the horse whose sword
proceeded opt of his mcuth, and death and Hell were
cast into the lake of fire, and whosoever was not found
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And
I saw a new heaven and a new earth and the holy city
of the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. And
I heard a great voice saying, behold the tabernacle of
God is with men, and he will dwell with men, and they
shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them
and be their God. (Rev. 19: 20, 21; 20: 14, 15; 21: 1, 2, 3.)

4. It gives us a new and wonderful picture of Christ. Too
long has the picture of Christ been that of the meek and lov-
ing Jesus. But that picture cannot stand alone, not in a
world like this. If many men have lost faith in Christ, it
is because the Christ of Galilee has seemed to them to be too
idyllic, radiating too much of charm, but too little of strength;
a gracious, kindly teacher; a guest whose garments have not
known the stain of warfare or the blood of struggle; a lover
of little children; a compassionate helper of the sick and
the sinful; "a being of extreme gentleness and delicacy and of
the utmost tolerance and subtlest sympathy; a saint of non-

PURPOSE AND MESSAGE 9

resistance"1 — but not the heroic leader, not the masterful
champion, not the all-conquering Captain of our salvation.
Out from this last book of the Bible wherein is fought the
final fight of faith, there emerges the picture of Christ that
is adequate to the uttermost needs of his suffering and strug-
gling people:

And I saw the heavens opened, and behold a white horse,
and he that sat upon it was called faithful and true, and
in righteousness he doth judge and make war. And his eyes
were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns,
and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and
the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white
horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean, and out of
his mouth a sharp sword goeth that with it he should
smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of
iron, and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and
wrath of the Almighty, and he hath on his vesture and on
his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
(Kev. 19:11-16).

5. Finally, this Apocalypse reveals to us the fact that his-
tory is in the mind of God and in the hand of Christ as the
author and the reviewer of the moral destinies of men. Here
is no mere evolutionary theory of history; here is no mere
idea that the "thoughts of men grow broader/' etc.; it is no
impersonal, automatic and scientific process which is going
to toss us into our promised land; it is not even a power not
ourselves that makes for righteousness. The Apocalypse
rather shows us God at work behind the framework which we
call the universe. It shows us Christ as the maker of his-
tory; it looks upon Him as marching on in the glory of
his strength, putting all things under his feet. It looks upon
moral victory as his victory, and sees Him standing on the
field of history, conquering and to conquer, only not yet hath
He put all things under his feet. There come moments in
the moral life of men — and who shall say that the present
age is not one? — in which no other interpretation of his-
tory will suffice; in which the incarnation itself, and nothing
short of it, will serve as the sure basis of the Social Hope.

1H. G. Wells, God, the Invisible King, pp. 101, 102,

CHAPTER II

LANGUAGE AND STYLE

ONE of the chief reasons why the modern reader feels
lost in the Book of Revelation and finds himself be-
wildered and dismayed as he seeks to understand it, is because
of the language in which it is written. Its style is not only
peculiar but it seems often to be almost repellent. One can
make nothing intelligible out of certain passages, as for ex-
ample, the twelfth chapter in which is set forth a woman clad
in the sun, with the moon under her feet, giving birth to a
son whom a great red dragon is ready to destroy — which is
cast down from heaven to earth where it continues to per-
secute the woman and her seed. What, one asks, does all this
mean? Does it mean anything? Whence this imagery? What
religious use can it have for us to-day?

The reader of the Book of Revelation, however, would not
be so much perplexed by its language if he were more familiar
with certain other portions of the Bible in which similar lan-
guage is used. What we need to remember is that this mode
of speech which seems so strange to us was not strange at all
to the first readers of this book, and would not be strange to
us if we knew our Old Testament better than we do. Nearly
every figure of speech used in this book was taken bodily out
of some portion of the Old Testament. The locusts and the
dragon, the beast and the scarlet woman, the tree of life, the
sea of glass mingled with fire, the horsemen, the harvesters
— these are not used for the first time in the Book of Reve-
lation. They constitute a religious dialect that was familiar
to Jews and to Jewish Christians, the meaning and purpose

10

LANGUAGE AND STYLE 11

of which were well understood. This was not the first book
of its kind; it would be much truer to call it the last. The
Book of Revelation is simply what may be called the Christian
climax to a kind of writing which had had a history extending
over five hundred years. The idea of a beast did not con-
fuse the first readers of this book because they knew that
the Book of Daniel was full of beasts and they knew what
those beasts meant. The idea of locusts with the hair of
women and the tails of serpents did not bother them, because
they knew all about them from the Book of Joel. All of
the imagery and strange symbols were perfectly intelligible to
them, and they would be to us if we knew our Bibles better.
In order, therefore, to understand this language and to feel
familiar with it, it is necessary to inquire into its origin and
to understand why it was used and what meaning it was in-
tended to convey.

Now all readers of the Old Testament are aware that
prophecy after the Exile takes on a new form and a new
color. Indeed, the Book of Zephaniah, written before the
exile, may be said to mark the beginnings of apocalyptic
prophecy.1 But the Book of Ezekiel really marks the transi-
tion from the old form of prophecy to the new. The very
opening chapter of Ezekiel reads like certain passages in the
Book of Revelation. Here we have cloud, wind and fire, four
living creatures with four faces and four wings, a chariot with
wheels like beryl, a throne like a sapphire stone and a man
on it with the likeness of the glory of Jehovah. Ezekiel, in
a word, reads differently, except in a few chapters of the book,
from Amos and Hosea and Isaiah. The language is different,
the ideas are different, the tone and color are different. If
this is true of Ezekiel, it is even more true of Zechariah, and
of Joel, and above all, of Daniel. The pages of the prophets
from the time of Ezekiel on are increasingly crowded with

1 See Zeph. 1 : 14-18, and cf. G. A. Smith. "His book is the first
tinging of prophecy with apocalypse." Minor Prophets, Zephaniah,
Chap. III.

12 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

figures of angels and archangels and all the heavenly host,
with visions and fantastic imagery.

The question is, What caused this change to overtake the
language and ideas of the Old Testament prophets? The an-
swer, once more, must be found in the historical background
of these post-exilic prophets. In a word, it was the Exile,
that prodigious disaster that ruined all the national hopes of
the Jews, which transformed the message of the prophets, and
changed the character and purpose of their writings. Down
to that time prophecy was largely ethical. It dealt with man's
duties to God. Its refrain was, "What doth the Lord require
of thee'?" It consisted of exhortations to righteousness, rebuke
of evil, denunciation of national sins, and promises of na-
tional prosperity based on moral obedience to the law and will
of God. This is the form of prophecy with which we are
most familiar.

But when the overthrow of Jerusalem had taken place, and
the people were confronted with apparently fatal and irredeem-
able disaster, then prophecy changes its tone and form to
meet the emergency and to satisfy the spiritual needs of the
people. Now it was not a question of what man should do
for God, but of what God could do for man. Now was not
the time to talk of man's duty to God, but of God's duty to
man. What moves the heart of the prophet now is not the
conversion of the people, but deliverance from trouble. It
was not the reformation of the people but salvation by the
Most High that inspired prophecy in its new form. During
the five hundred years that marked the humiliation and degra-
dation of the Jewish people under the successive tyranny of
Babylonian and Assyrian, of Persian, Greek and Roman con-
querors, prophecy lifted its voice in an agony of appeal to the
Ancient of Days, to the omnipotent God, to bare his arm
in the sight of all nations. The scene of prophecy was shifted
from earth to heaven. Its pages were filled with the de-
scription of the power of the God who is King of Kings
and Lord of Lords, his resources, his hosts, his anger,

LANGUAGE AND STYLE 13

his deliverance. In a word, we have the revelation of omnipo-
tent might as a pledge and promise of victory, given to the
people of God when their own strength was exhausted, their
own hope had vanished, and their future was filled with the
darkness of despair.

We understand now what the word "revelation" means. It
does not mean a revelation of the future mysteries of the end
of the world, the millennium or the Day of Judgment. Neither
does it mean primarily a revelation of the glories of Heaven
or the blessedness of the redeemed. Rather it means a revela-
tion of the infinite God, mighty to save; an uncovering for
the consolation and inspiration of God's people of the all-
conquering powers of an omnipotent Saviour. Thus under-
stood, the word Revelation or Apocalypse is used of all this
type of prophetic literature.

It is not difficult, when the underlying idea of apocalyptic
prophecy is grasped, to understand its style and vocabulary.
The writer is endeavoring in each case to convey to the reader
the impression of the irresistible resources of God marshalled
to defend and to deliver his people. Evidently this impres-
sion can be best conveyed by the use of highly colored and pic-
torial language. Symbolism is thus of the very essence of
apocalyptic thought. All of the seemingly fantastic imagery
in this type of literature is simply the effort of the human
mind to portray the resources of God on the one hand and
of evil on the other. It is the description, so to speak, of
celestial munition factories and of the mobilization of ethereal
troops. While in part grotesque, it is in the main a grandiose
effort of the human mind to portray in pictorial fashion the
contending hosts of God and of Satan, of the beast and of the
Lamb. Such was the meaning of the apocalypses in the Bible
and out of it, which for five hundred years brought unbroken
inspiration to the beleagured, defeated, discouraged and all
but despairing children of God.

It should be remembered also that such symbolism is com-
mon in all literature outside of the Bible which aims at the

14 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

same result as these apocalyptical Bible books. Milton, for
example, in his Paradise Lost, uses language that is closely
akin to that of Daniel and Revelation. And we have a fine
bit of apocalyptical writing in the Battle Hymn of the Re-
public :

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath

are stored,
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift

sword,
His truth is marching on."

Whenever the human mind endeavors to portray the divine
power and wrath in its onslaught upon sin and evil, this pic-
torial language will be used. It is the language of the second
Psalm and of the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah.

It requires no argument to prove the inspiration of this
kind of prophecy when its meaning is once understood. Often
it is treated, even by serious Bible scholars, as prophecy in
decline; as an inferior or second-rate kind of literature, not
to be compared with the fine ethical chapters of Amos or
Isaiah. It is often thought of as fantastic, grotesque, or even
absurd. The tendency is to skip such chapters as represent-
ing a kind of Jewish thought which is wholly foreign to mod-
ern thinking and modern culture. More will be said about
this in the next chapter. But here the essential and wonderful
inspiration of apocalyptical prophecy must be insisted upon.

Its inspiration is seen first of all in its accommodation to
the real needs of the people. There is something truly won-
derful to the thoughtful Bible reader in the swift way in
which prophecy makes itself over in the interest of the human
soul. It cares nothing for itself; its sole concern is the spirit-
ual needs of men. And, as we have seen, no kind of message
was more calculated to meet such needs at the time these books
were written than the very kind of message which they em-

LANGUAGE AND STYLE 15

body. Ethical exhortation was not then needed; therefore it
was no longer used.

"I believe in the inspiration of the Bible/' Coleridge once
remarked, "because it inspires me." If we judge the inspira-
tion of these apocalyptical books by this test, they become
among the most inspired books in the Bible. It is not too
much to say that at certain crisis hours in history, the books
of Daniel and Revelation have saved for the world the faith
of the Bible. These messages evoked such a response of
heroic fortitude and endurance from the hearts of readers,
that their resistance to evil became like adamant, and the faith
of which they were the sole and apparently helpless defenders
triumphed over what seemed insuperable odds. What, the
historical student may well ask, would have become of the
Bible faith had it not been for the naming appeals of the
apocalypses ?

Finally the inspiration of these books is seen in the faith
which they themselves enshrine. Whence came the assurance
to these unknown writers that God was ready to act and ready
to strike? How were they enabled to promise sure and speedy
victory against every outward appearance and probability?
How came they to know that deliverance had been provided
and that salvation was near? Who caused them to see the
counsels of the Eternal, and to reveal the infinite passion
and power of an omnipotent Saviour? What made their
hearts to be lifted up to a height far above even the most
courageous and daring of their comrades? The answer to
these questions rests in the spiritual region of what, for want
of a better word, we call the inspiration of the human soul.
It means, indeed, the very entering of the Spirit of God into
the hearts of these men, enabling them to see what the eye
of man could not see, to hear what ear had not heard, and to
understand what otherwise would be impossible for the mind
of man to conceive. From this point of view the apocalypti-
cal writers become the most inspired of the prophets, and one
finds one's heart warm with ft new feeling of gratitude and

16 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

love for these men from whose souls, in the darkest hours
of Bible history, there leaped forth the faith, the knowledge,
the assurance which turned defeat into victory and brought
life out of death:

"Thrice blest is he to whom is given
The instinct that can tell
That God is on the field when He
Is most invisible."

What has here been set down concerning apocalyptical
literature as a whole may best be illustrated by a brief survey
of the Book of Daniel. The Book of Revelation cannot be
understood apart from the Book of Daniel. They are two
parallel books. In each case the historical background is the
same; the purpose is the same; the method is the same; and
the result is the same. In order to understand the Book of
Revelation it is necessary that we first understand the Book
of Daniel.

The Book of Daniel is one of the most interesting and im-
portant books in the Bible. It pulses with human interest;
it throbs with spiritual passion; it is full of dramatic spiritual
appeal; it is wonderful in the faith it exhibits; and the les-
sons it teaches are of permanent and extraordinary value.
Yet, like the Book of Revelation, it is a book that is all but
neglected by the rank and file of Bible readers. For many
people the first six chapters are all that they know of the
book. These chapters contain the stories of the heroism of
Daniel and his friends at Babylon. They are good hero-
stories to be read to children, but Shadrach in the fiery fur-
nace or Daniel in the lions' den do not convey an immortal
truth to grown-up readers of the Bible. Another set of Bible
students fastens on the last six chapters of the book. In these
visions they seem to find a key to the mysteries of the future.
Upon the basis of these chapters they figure out when the
world will end, the Anti-Christ be destroyed, and the millen-

LANGUAGE AND STYLE 17

nium be ushered in. Yet neither of these is a worthy way of
using one of the grandest books in the Old Testament.

The Book of Daniel brings us down to the very end of
the Old Testament era. It brings us to the very threshold of
New Testament times. It was probably the very latest of our
Old Testament books. Its scene is not laid in Babylon in the
time of the Exile at all, but in Palestine, only about two
centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ. The period
of Jewish history which called it into being was one of the
most critical in all the chequered history of the Jewish people.
Once more, and just before the Prince of Peace was to be born,
the Hebrew faith was confronted with a trial so severe that
its very existence was threatened. In the year 332 B.C. Persia
was conquered by Alexander the Great, and the succeeding
two centuries of Jewish history are known as the Greek period.
Now the Greek invasion was unlike the Assyrian and the Baby-
lonian invasion in this respect, that it was not an invasion
of armies only, but of ideas as well. A force of intellect,
an insidious culture, a permeating spirit foreign to the ideals
of the Hebrew people, was brought to bear upon them with
a pressure surpassing any that the Jews had hitherto known.
The ancient empires had transplanted the nation to Assyria
and Babylon; the Greeks brought Greece to Palestine. Israel
was compassed and penetrated by an influence as subtle as
the atmosphere, and found itself infected and altered beyond
all powers of resistance. The policy of Alexander and his
successors was to introduce the Greek language, Greek cus-
toms, Greek culture, in all conquered territories. Hellenism
was in its very nature a permeating and transforming force.
Little by little it made its way into the very heart and citadel
of Hebrew life. The Hellenist Jews, comprising the priests
and the aristocracy, began to speak the Greek language, adopt
the Greek customs, frequent the Greek theatres, take over,
in a word, the Greek culture. The very integrity of Hebrew
faith and morals was threatened by this subtle and apparently
irresistible invasion of Greek civilization and ideals.

18 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

Of course, it did not proceed without opposition. Over
against the Hellenists who favored the new culture were the
Chasidim, the conservatives, those faithful to the ancestral re-
ligion and to the faith of their fathers. Thus the issue was
joined. How it would have ended had the policy of the peace-
ful penetration of Greek ideas proceeded it is impossible to
state. Instead of this, the issue was suddenly forced in a
most dramatic and unexpected manner.

About 198 B.C., a Syrian monarch known as Antiochus
the Great finally succeeded in wresting Judaea from the con-
trol of Egypt. His son, Antiochus Epiphanes, the bright and
shining one, came to the throne about twenty years later.
He had long lived in Greece and was a devotee of everything
Greek. One of his ambitions was to make the Greek lan-
guage, the Greek literature and the Greek culture prevail all
over the East. When Judaea became a part of his dominions,
he determined to do away with the Jewish religion, and to
substitute for the Sabbath and the Law and the God of the
Jews, the altars and the sacrifices and the gods of Greece.

About the year 170 B.C., we come to the climax of one
of the grandest epochs in the whole history of the Jews and
to one of the turning points in the history of religion. An-
tiochus determined, in a word, not to wait for the gradual
fulfilment of his plans, but to accomplish them at once by
the use of force. A pagan altar was erected in Jerusalem,
on the site of the Temple. Sacrifices were made to Zeus,
the Temple was polluted, the people were compelled to take
part in the pagan rites. They were ordered to disregard the
Sabbath, to cease from reading the Law and the prophets,
and death was the penalty for refusing to obey. Religious
persecution had become a fact for the first time in Jewish
history.

At first, Antiochus carried all before him. Many of the
priests and most influential people went over to the Greeks.
By fire and sword Jerusalem had been converted into a heathen

LANGUAGE AND STYLE 19

city. Then came resistance and the upleap of the Jewish
spirit.

Twenty miles northwest of Jerusalem is the little town of
Modin (or Modina). Here lived a pious Jew, Mattathias,
and his five sons. When the soldiers came to enforce the rule
regarding heathen sacrifices, Mattathias refused, killed the
King's officer and a Jew who stepped forward to offer the
sacrifices, fled with his sons to the mountains and called the
people to war. Hundreds followed him and then, only about
a century and a half before the birth of Christ, the last great
war was fought to save the Jewish faith from destruction.

This war is known to history as the Maccabean war. It
has been so called from the name given to the most famous
of the sons of Mattathias, Judas, who became the military
leader of the Jews, and one of the great generals of history.
He was called Maccabeus, which means the Hammerer. With
mere handfuls of soldiers compared with the hosts that An-
tiochus sent against him, he conducted a guerilla warfare with
such skill and pertinacity that the Syrians were beaten off
again and again, until, by a miracle as it seemed, Antiochus
suddenly died. Judaea and all its precious heritage of faith
was preserved unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
by Him fulfilled into that faith which has been and is for all
time the hope of mankind. Any one who wishes to read
about this episode and about these wars may do so by open-
ing his Old Testament Apocrypha and reading the first book
of Maccabees. In spite of occasional errors, this book is au-
thentic history, contains the main facts of this extraordinary
epoch, and is of sustained and thrilling interest.

Now the Book of Daniel had for its purpose to enflame the
patriotism and faith of the Jews in this life-and-death strug-
gle, to nerve them to resistance, and to create in them the
will to conquer. "If we would realize the greatness of the
Book of Daniel, we should ask ourselves the question, What
would have been the history of religion in the world, and
what would have been our own religious condition if the effort

20 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF KEVELATION

of Antiochus to extirpate Judaism had been successful, and
then realize that the faith and hope which this book expresses
. . . was the only thing that stood in the way of his success." *

We do not know the author of the book. Like the Book
of Jonah, it is one of the great anonymous books of the Old
Testament. The author assumes the name of Daniel, which
means "God is my Judge." There may indeed have been a
man named Daniel. In Ezekiel (14:14, 20; 28:3) a Daniel
is mentioned with Noah and Job as a very righteous man and
as an example of the highest wisdom. But we have no exact
knowledge of him, and the author simply makes use of him
and of the stories connected with him, to point his own moral
lesson, and to create the moral enthusiasm demanded by the
crisis which he had set himself to meet. He tells these stories
as if they had taken place in the far away days of the Baby-
lonian captivity. But his readers knew how to take them.
They were naming tracts for the times. "This book fell like
a glowing spark from a clear Heaven upon a surface which
was already intensely heated far and wide and waiting to
burst into flames." For a century or more prophecy had
been dormant. Once more before the close of the Old Testa-
ment it leaps like flame from the lips of this inspired prophet.

We are now in a position to understand the message of
this book. It falls into two parts : the first six chapters, which
have to do with the stories of the heroism of Daniel; and the
last six chapters which contain visions and predictions of
the outcome of the struggle, the destruction of evil, and the
triumph of the faithful.

Look for a moment at these stories in Daniel in the light of
what has been said, and see what new and wonderful signifi-
cance they assume for their time and for all time. Here is
the story of how Daniel and his companions refused to defile
themselves with the King's meat. Its immediate object was
to brace the Jews to refuse to eat the meat which Antiochus
had commanded they should eat in order to break down Jew-

1 Porter, op. cit., p. 94.

LANGUAGE AND STYLE 21

ish religious customs. Eating of such meat since the Exile
had been regarded as a deadly sin. This story illustrates the
blessing of faithfulness. In it young men in the midst of
the solicitations and temptations of modern life can find the
same inspiration which the Jews found, beset as they were by
the royal decree.

Akin to this is the story in the third chapter of the burning
and fiery furnace. "Regarded as an instance of the use of
historic fiction to inculcate the noblest truths, the third chap-
ter of Daniel is not only superb in its imaginative grandeur
but still more in the manner in which it sets forth the in-
spired fidelity which is the essence of the most heroic and in-
spiring forms of martyrdom. So far from slighting it because
it is not literal history, I have regarded it as one of the most
precious among the narratives of the Bible, and of priceless
value as illustrating the deliverance of undaunted faithful-
ness, and that God is the Saviour and Deliverer of those who
trust in Him." * The Jews were in the furnace of affliction,
but they were not to be afraid of it. Let them but answer
as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered — one of the
most magnificent passages in the Bible. President Hadley of
Yale has said that he could never read these words without
emotion :

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver
us from the burning fiery furnace; but if it be not ac-
cording to his plan, be it still known unto thee, O king,
that we will not worship thy gods nor the golden image.
(Dan. 3:17, 18.)

In this setting, the phrase "But if it be not" is one of the
noblest in all literature.

And the fire had no power upon their bodies, nor was
the hair of their head singed, nor had the smell of fire
passed upon them, for there was with them in the fur-
nace a fourth whose aspect was like unto the Son of God.
(Dan. 3:27.)

1 Dean Farrar, quoted in Daniel, Expositor's Bible.

22 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

What depth of inspiration for the day for which it was writ-
ten! What a chapter for the martyrs of the day in which
we live!

With these two must be linked the story of Daniel cast into
the den of lions. The wicked are often called lions in the Old
Testament. "My soul is among lions. Break the jaw-bones of
the lions, 0 Lord." "They have cut off my life in the dungeon
and cast a stone upon me." In the story, the Jews for whom
it was written saw a true picture of themselves cast helpless
in the midst of their ravenous foes, and in the deliverance
which was Daniel's they saw the promise of their salvation
from their enemies and from them that hated them. The truth
of this chapter for its time and for all time is adapted to
those who face persecution for righteousness' sake.

Besides these three stories of personal heroism are the three
dreams, pictures of the destruction of the kingdom of evil. In
the first dream the prophet sees a kingdom with head of gold,
arms of silver, thighs of brass, and feet of iron, standing
athwart the land and threatening to crush it. And there was
a "stone not made with hands" that smote it.

Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the
gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of
the summer threshing-floors. (Dan. 2:35).

There was not a Jew who would not know that the kingdom
of Antiochus was meant, and that the downfall of that colossus
was prophesied by the impact of the rock of righteousness.
Think of the inspiration which the story contained for these
threatened Jews! Think back to the colossus of Germany
which within our own memory stood apparently impregnable,
"girt about with might," but was made like the chaff of
summer threshing-floors by the impact of a stone not made
with hands, by the force of righteous ideas.

In the second dream picture, the prosperity of the heathen
kingdom is likened to a tree which grew and was strong, and
the height thereof reached unto Heaven and the sight thereof

LANGUAGE AND STYLE 23

to the end of the earth. But a holy one came down from
Heaven and hewed the tree to the ground. Naught but a
stump was left :

Thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee after that thou
shalt have known that the heavens do rule. Wherefore — break
off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by shewing
mercy to the poor. (Dan. 4:26, 27.)

The meaning of this prophecy for its own day needs no com-
ment, nor does its wonderful applicability to our day: no
kingdom is sure until "they have known that the heavens do
rule."

The story of Belshazzar, with its oriental magnificence, has
been made familiar to us in art. It is a true night-piece with
all the colors of dissolute, extravagant riot, luxurious passion,
gTowing madness, ruinous bewilderment, mysterious horror
and terror of such a night of revelry and death. The descrip-
tion begins with a crashing overture, and it ends with the
doom of judgment. The eloquence of it must have fired to
white heat the religious enthusiasm of the Jews for whose
inspiration it was written; to-day there are few passages in
all literature to compare with it for its effect on the emotions.
Considered as a judgment on the only oriental empire known
to our times, the Turkish rule, it is fitting in nearly every
detail. The words Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, fall like the
sound of doom, the tolling of the bell of fate, upon the mod-
ern nations that have been weighed and found wanting.

If this, then, is the historical meaning and the everlasting
inspiration of these stories contained in the first six chapters
of Daniel, a word must be said about the visions and predic-
tions contained in the last six chapters. Here we have the
emergence of that new type of prophecy of which I have
spoken. It tells men that, irresistible as their human foes
may seem to be, the hosts of the Lord are mightier still, and
nothing can withstand his might. Traces of this kind of
prophecy are to be found, as we have seen, in all the litera-
ture after the Exile, but Daniel is the first book to make

24 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF KEVELATION

exclusive use of it. Its entire message deals with what God
will do for men; it speaks only of salvation and deliver-
ance, and with its strange figures of speech and bi-
zarre imagery, borrowed largely from Eastern mythology,
it brings a powerful message of hope and victory. The
point to be borne in mind, however, is that this prophecy
in the book of Daniel is all focused on immediate historical
events. The afflicted Jews in the time of the Maccabees were
demanding an end of their troubles and deliverance from their
persecution. That was what the book promised them. First
of all, it described their enemies in the terms of beasts: one
like a lion, one like an eagle, one like a bear, one like a
leopard, with horns and heads, and teeth and hoofs — these
are the heathen kingdoms. Over against them there is the
host of the Lord, there is the Ancient of Days, there is the
Son of Man, and there are the saints of the Most High. In
chapter after chapter there is the promise:

Judgment shall be set; and the kingdom shall be given to
the people of the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey
Him. Here is an end of the matter. (Dan. 7:27.)

The inspiration of these chapters is two-fold: first, it lies
in the fact that when the fortunes of the Hebrews were at
their lowest, when it seemed as if nothing could save them, at
such an hour the faith of this prophet rose supreme and he
promised the Jews, battling for their faith against overwhelm-
ing odds, that judgment was to be visited upon the beast An-
tiochus and "they shall take away his kingdom to destroy and
to consume it to the end." Even a time limit is set to his
triumph. After three and a half years (a time, times and half
a time) the people are to be delivered from their persecution.
And indeed they were! How, in those dark days, came the
prophet to have so confident a faith in the triumph of right-
eousness that was on the scaffold, and in the downfall of evil
that was on the throne*? In the answer to that question we
touch a real inspiration in the Book of Daniel.

LANGUAGE AND STYLE 25

This matchless assurance that evil shall be conquered in
the end, that the right shall ultimately prevail, remains the
eternal inspiration of all righteous souls. The Book of Daniel
was one of the favorite books of Jesus. There are more ref-
erences to it in the records of his life than to almost any
other Old Testament book. In the dark hours of his passion
and struggle, when He came face to face with incarnate evil,
when He sweat drops of blood in his agony to do away with
the sin of the world, his soul hung upon this everlasting as-
surance that "upon the wing of abominations shall come one
that maketh desolate and even unto the full end, and that de-
termined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate." (Dan.
9:27, R. V.)

If Jesus needed the inspiration of these chapters, we need
them too. They bid us, even in the darkest day, to trust the
omnipotence of righteousness; they tell us that evil is marked
for overthrow; that God's word is not to be mistrusted; that
we must labor and endure in the faith which is so adequately
expressed for us at the end of this wonderful book:

But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt
rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. (Dan. 12:13.)

Any one who is at all familiar with the history of the Jew-
ish people between the time of the Maccabees and the Book
of Revelation — roughly speaking, between 100 B.C. and 100
A.D. — will not be surprised that this kind of apocalyptical
literature flourished during this period. As we have seen,
here is prophecy for dark and dismal hours, for people
with their backs to the wall, desperate, defeated and all but
despairing. Such was the outward condition of the Jewish
people for these two hundred years. Delivered from the
Syrians, the Jews fell into the clutches of Rome and, as every
New Testament reader knows, they were ground under the iron
heel of Roman oppression. The embers of revolt were con-
stantly breaking out into the open flame of rebellion, until
Rome determined to make an end of this seditious people.

26 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

That end came in the unparalleled and appalling disaster of
the capture of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Titus in the
year A.D. 70. The horrors of the siege and destruction of
Jerusalem may be read in the history of Josephus. All
through this dismal period the faith of the Jews was sus-
tained by apocalyptical writings which are not a part of our
canonical Scriptures. These offer a broad and a fascinating
field for study.1 It is unfortunate that they have not been
gathered into a convenient volume for the general reader.
Two of them (Ezra and Baruch) appear in the Old Testa-
ment Apocrypha. Others have been published in separate
volumes (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Lon-
don). A knowledge of these books is necessary for one who
desires to understand the sources of the Book of Revelation,
and the position which it occupies in the history of apocalyp-
tical literature.

The most important of these non-canonical apocalypses is
the Book of Enoch. It was written a little later than the
Book of Daniel, and like Daniel is pseudonymous. It is com-
posite, and contains several apocalypses which made their
appearance during the two centuries before Christ. The first
part of the book contains a series of visions, in which are
described the impending destruction of evil, the triumph of
righteousness, and the setting up of the Messianic kingdom.

The second of these visions consists of a series of parables
or similitudes. These all treat of the Messianic age, and
offer a basis for understanding the Messianic consciousness of
Christ. In them are described the future abodes of the right-
eous, the punishment reserved for sinners, the sufferings of
God's servants in their resistance to evil, and the final judg-
ments to be enacted by the Messiah. A third division of
Enoch gives us information about the heavenly bodies, and
still another describes the whole course of human history to

1 The Standard work is R. H. Charles' Apocrypha and Pseudepi-
grapha (Oxford 1913). A brief review of the most important of
these apocalypses will be found in Case, The Revelation of John,
pp. 75-124, and Porter, op. cit., pp. 293-356. See also Hastings*
Bible Dictionary, Apocalyptic Literature, and Apocrypha.

LANGUAGE AND STYLE 27

the end of the world. Doubtless this book was familiar to
the author of Revelation (see Jude 14), and it contains all
of the familiar ideas of our Apocalypse: the necessity for
faithful endurance, the trials of God's servants, the terrors of
the last times, the sure triumph of righteousness, the punish-
ment of the wicked, and the glories of the Messianic age.

Early in the Christian era appeared The Assumption of
Moses, the purpose of which was to encourage trust in re-
ligious ideals rather than in political action while awaiting
the salvation that God was sure to send to his people. A
little later appeared The Secrets of Enoch. God is described
as revealing to Enoch the secrets of Heaven and of Hades.
He is also told that at the end of seven thousand years a new
and eternal world is to appear, which is now imminent.

The fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 gave rise to two im-
portant Jewish apocalypses, both of which are found in our
Old Testament Apocrypha, Baruch and Ezra (II Esdras).
The first of these purports to have been written by Jeremiah's
scribe. The purpose of the real author, however, is to admon-
ish the faithful to endure in the face of all trials, since in
his own time God will come to them with a glorious reward,
and will give terrible punishment to their enemies. In the
book of Ezra, the question is asked why God should permit
his people to suffer so severely. The answer to this question
is given to Ezra by an angel, and contains the familiar apoca-
lyptical assurance of the care of God for his people, the
impending end, the punishment of sinners, and the new crea-
tion with the glories of the heavenly Jerusalem. A careful
reading of this book, which is easily accessible (O. T.
Apocrypha II Esdras), will reveal many of the features of
the New Testament Apocalypse.

There are a few Christian apocalypses which made their
appearance subsequent to the writing of our Revelation. The
most important of these are The Shepherd of Hennas, and
The Apocalypse of Peter. It seems reasonably clear that
both books were in existence as early as 150 A.D. Hermas

28 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

receives revelations of wisdom in the form of addresses which
he is instructed to pass on to his fellow-Christians. These
addresses contain information about the church, the impend-
ing catastrophe, and the virtues which Christians should pos-
sess. The Apocalypse of Peter has great historical signifi-
cance since it is the prototype of that kind of literature of
which the writings of Dante are the most famous example.
This Apocalypse is only a fragment, and its chief purpose is
to portray in detail the future blessings of the righteous and
the torments of the wicked. The special tortures of mur-
derers, blasphemers, the worldly and the persecutors of Chris-
tians are successfully described. The Book of Revelation
contains only the beginnings of such speculation which,
through this later Apocalypse, became one of the familiar
themes of later mediaeval church literature.

Such then, in briefest outline, is the history of apocalypti-
cal prophecy to which the Book of Revelation belongs. It is
the great Christian Apocalypse. Like all apocalyptic litera-
ture, it was written at a time when faith was tested, when
evil was regnant, when God's people were threatened by suf-
fering and by death. Here we have the cry of the Christian
heart tortured by the pressure of the Pagan Empire. Falling
back on that form of prophecy that was so familiar, so sat-
urated with all kinds of national and religious sentiment,
which had already vindicated itself more than once in the his-
tory of God's people, John, carried away in the spirit, be-
held the Apocalypse, the Omnipotent God, the Lamb that
was slain, sitting upon the throne and crowned King of Kings
and Lord of Lords.

CHAPTER III

THE ETHICAL VALUE OF APOCALYPTICAL PROPHECY

IT is important to remember that the apocalypses of the
Old Testament were reflected in the teachings of Jesus.
They were not reckoned by Him to be a negligible or sec-
ondary element in Old Testament inspiration. Apocalyptical
thought is seen to be a fundamental and permanent element
in his teaching. If we can discover the reason for this, we
shall discover also the place which the apocalyptical ideas
should have in the thought of all Christians.

Every reader of the Gospels is aware that they contain two
kinds of language, and two types of thought. On the one
hand, there is the simple ethical teaching of Jesus as found
in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Parables, and in the chap-
ters of the Fourth Gospel. In these familiar portions of the
Gospel we are taught about God's love for men, about man's
duty to God and to his fellow-men, and about the nature of
the kingdom of heaven. But there is another kind of teach-
ing, found chiefly at fhe end of each of the four Gospels, in
which Jesus discourses about the end of the world, the judg-
ment, the resurrection of the just, the condemnation of the
wicked, and the coming of the Son of Man in power and great
glory.

To most Bible readers these chapters have seemed strange
and unintelligible, quite foreign to the words of the meek and
loving Jesus; a rather unwelcome and mysterious addition, as
it were, to the familiar sayings of Christ. Many Bible read-
ers, if they were to speak their minds, would be rather re-
lieved if the teaching of Jesus were free from this apocalypti-

29

30 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

cal language. Frankly, they are not at home in it, do not
read it, and do not know what to do with it. What relation
has the parable of the prodigal son to such words as these
at the close of the same Gospel (Luke 21:25-27):

And there shall be signs in the sun and the moon and
in the stars; . . . the sea and the waves roaring, for the pow-
ers of heaven shall be shaken. And then they shall see the Son
of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

The average Bible reader is not the only one to be perplexed
by this contrast in the teachings of Jesus. Scholars have
been baffled by it also. Of late years, an exhaustive study of
the subject has been made. No portion of the Gospels has
been scrutinized with more care than the apocalyptical ele-
ment. Out of this study, four general positions have emerged,
which may be briefly summarized as follows:

1. It has been thought that these teachings are a kind of
Jewish excrescence upon the pure, original Gospel of Christ
Himself, that they are not a part of that original Gospel
at all, that they were carried over from the Old Testament
by the early Christian writers whose minds were full of this
Jewish teaching, and grafted on the teaching of Christ Him-
self which was, in its original form, innocent of any such
thought and language. The apocalyptical element in the Gos-
pels is thus thought to be a Jewish gloss foisted upon the nar-
rative by Jewish influences, the pure Gospel being adulterated
by a foreign admixture of Jewish ideas.

The trouble with this theory is that it runs counter to the
judgment of the best scholars of the text of the New Testa-
ment. Those scholars now tell us that the apocalyptical say-
ings of Christ are as well attested as his simple ethical teach-
ings. While there may be some intermingling of Jewish ele-
ments in the Gospels, there is nothing to show \hat the
apocalyptical ideas are not an original part of the teachings
of Jesus. They cannot be stricken out of the Gospels as
alien and spurious additions to it.

2. A second theory is that these teachings in the Gospels

ETHICAL VALUE OF APOCALYPTICAL PROPHECY 31

are the exaggeration of a later age. Our Gospels, as we
know, are not a verbatim and contemporary record of the
sayings of Jesus. They are a recollection of those sayings
as they passed through the minds of the evangelists who later
set them forth orally and in writing. Thus they are tinged
and colored by the thought of the evangelists and by the at-
mosphere of a later time. Since the Gospels were written
about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, or shortly
after, it is natural to suppose that that great catastrophe
influenced the thought of those who reported the utterances
of Jesus. Those utterances, as we know, remained a fluid tra-
dition for nearly a generation before being put into a fixed
form. During that time they were susceptible to outside
influences and an unconscious infiltration of extraneous ele-
ments. These apocalyptical ideas crept into the reported
teaching of Jesus during this period of fluidity. Doubtless
there were some of his sayings which lent themselves to such
an interpretation, and the later Christian consciousness made
explicit, in an exaggerated form, what was at the most merely
implicit in the teaching of Jesus.

The answer to this is, that there must have been at least
some solid foundation for these portions of the Gospels, since
they attained the strength and the dimensions which they ex-
hibit in all of our four Gospels and elsewhere in the New
Testament. We have in the New Testament no less than seven
different presentations of the faith of the primitive Chris-
tians, viz.: the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke),
the Fourth Gospel, Paul, Hebrews, James, Peter and Reve-
lation. In all of them the apocalyptical element is promi-
nent. It is an accepted principle in New Testament inter-
pretation, that what is common to all presentations of the
Gospel teaching goes back to the teaching of Christ Himself.
The application of this principle proves that the apocalyptical
teaching belongs to Christ, if it proves anything at all. The
evidence shows that if that teaching were influenced at all by
later thought, it was softened rather than sharpened as time

32 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

went on. It goes back to the very first days of the church's
history. It leaps as by instinct from the lips of the New
Testament preachers. It must, therefore, have behind it the
authority of Christ Himself.

3. A third view accepts these sayings as an undoubted genu-
ine part of the teaching of Christ, but insists that they are
an unimportant part of that teaching. Jesus was a Jew.
He inherited the Jewish ideas, and the Jewish teaching was
a part of his human consciousness. He was a child of his
age, and He did not escape from the Jewish categories of
thought. Thus the survival of the apocalyptical ideas is a
proof, according to the exponents of this theory, of the way
in which He emptied Himself into the human life of his time.
The apocalyptical thought survives as a relic of old Judaism
and must be regarded as an anachronism in the teaching's of
Jesus to which little attention need be paid and in which
little value will be found.

The difficulty here lies in the fact that this teaching grows
in intensity and in fullness and power as the life of Christ
progresses. If it were an inheritance truly foreign to Him-
self and to his mission, we should expect to find it in abun-
dance at the beginning of his teaching, but falling more and
more into the background as that teaching developed ac-
cording to its own principles and purposes. But precisely
the opposite is the case. The apocalyptical ideas are indeed
to be found all through the Gospels. "Little Apocalypses"
(as for example in Lk. 10:18; Matt. 8:11, 12) keep occur-
ring. But it is as his ministry approaches its climax that
this teaching increases in extent and in power. It is in the
shadow of the Cross itself that it rises to its height. How
then can it be considered a negligible or unimportant or
valueless part of his teaching? The evidence goes to show
that on the contrary it was an outstanding part of the Gospel
as Jesus felt it and taught it.

4. So convincing has this argument seemed to many mod-
ern scholars that they have not hesitated to declare that

ETHICAL VALUE OF APOCALYPTICAL PKOPHECY 33

the apocalyptical element in the Gospels is the original core
of that Gospel, and that in its light the whole teaching and
outlook and mission of Christ must be understood and ex-
plained. The apocalypse of Jesus, in a word, and not the
ethics of Jesus, constitutes the real Gospel. For this strange
and unwelcome conclusion, conservative Bible students are in
part responsible, in so far as they have insisted upon the im-
possibility of reconciling the ethical and apocalyptical teach-
ings as parts of one and the same Gospel. Those who have
been unwilling to accept the apocalyptical teachings of Christ
on a par and level with his familiar ethical teachings, have
pointed out that the two are mutually contradictory. And
this contradiction, they have argued, goes deeper than lan-
guage and form of thought. It involves the very essence of
the Gospel itself. On the one hand we have the fact of the
incarnation, God in man, Christ uttering the truth of God in
his teachings concerning God and man. When this was done,
the kingdom of God had in a true sense already come. Out
of this inspiration, the kingdom of heaven would gradually
develop as the tree from the grain of mustard seed. When
the sower had sown the seed, redemption had indeed been
wrought. Quite contrary to this, however — so runs this ar-
gument— is the apocalyptical idea in the Gospels. According
to this, the kingdom of heaven had not come with the earthly
career of Jesus. His Messiahship would not be proved and
recognized until his return upon the clouds of heaven. Not
until the Son of Man should come with power and great
glory, not in the weakness of the manger but in the triumph
of the apocalypse, would his Messiahship be vindicated and
his kingdom be set up on earth. It has been urged that
both of these conceptions, the ethical and the apocalyptical,
cannot be true. One or the other must represent the mes-
sage and mission of Christ.

Accepting this conclusion, a certain set of influential schol-
ars, led by Albert Schweitzer, whose book, "The Quest of the
Historical Jesus," 1910, is the most complete statement of this

34 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

view, has argued that the apocalyptical conception is the real
and original Gospel; and that the apocalyptical hope was that
which, from the first, animated and inspired Christ and was
the secret of his inspiration and the source of his Social Hope
for the world. It was upon this revelation that his heart was
set from the first, the ethical teachings constituting only a
preliminary and preparatory and temporary labor, until the
consummation should appear. This generation was not to pass
away until these things were fulfilled. Some standing there
were not to taste death until they should see the Son of Man
coming in glory. It was the apocalyptical vision that was
the inner inspiration of Jesus all through his ministry, an in-
spiration inherited from the most spiritual of the prophets
who had most immediately preceded Him and passed on by
Him to his followers. The Cross was to Jesus the crucifixion
of these hopes, and constituted the bitterness of his cup and
the agony of his soul.1

Into a criticism of this view it is not our purpose to go.
Doubtless it clears up certain difficulties, explains certain well-
attested sayings of Christ which otherwise seem very obscure,
and presents us with a clear and intelligible story of the
progress of his thought and consciousness. But it runs
counter to what may be called the normal Christian conscious-
ness. It may satisfy intellectually and even spiritually a cer-
tain company of admittedly able and devout scholars, but it
does not and will not satisfy the instinct of the instructed
Christian heart. It not only does not offer men the Christ
whom they want, but it does not present them with the whole
Christ of the Gospels. An interpretation which puts the
whole ethical teaching of Christ in the background, makes a
subordinate if not a negligible fact of the Incarnation, and
makes the Cross the symbol of a divine disappointment in-
stead of a divine consummation, will never win the loyal al-
legiance of more than a small group of Christian thinkers.

1 The reader will refer to London Theological Studies, H. T. An-
drews, "The Eschatological Utterances of Jesus," and to D. S.
Cairns, op. cit., Chap. IV, "Jesus and the Kingdom of God."

ETHICAL VALUE OF APOCALYPTICAL PROPHECY 35

For the majority of Christians, the chief value of all this
apocalyptical explication of the Gospels is a vindication of it
as a real and permanent and fundamental element in the
total thought and message of Christ.

If, then, no one of these four views can be accepted, what
interpretation can be offered which will include both the
ethical and apocalyptical ideas and unite them in a compre-
hensible and intelligible whole? The answer to this question
is not nearly so difficult as it has been made to appear. Care-
ful thought will show that not only can they be united,
but that they are both necessary to the complete thought and
teaching of Christ, and that both are needed in the thinking
and experience of a true follower of Christ and a true worker
for Christ.

We have already seen what is the innermost meaning of
all the Jewish apocalypses. It was the Jewish way of ex-
pressing faith and hope in the ultimate triumph of good over
evil. Always that idea lies at the root and center of an
apocalypse, wherever found. That idea Jesus had inherited;
it had become a part of his spiritual experience. He was
familiar with the vocabulary of the apocalypse, that literary
vehicle in which this fundamental idea was transmitted to
the Hebrew mind and consciousness. This inspiration, then,
and the form in which it was expressed and uttered, formed a
part of that equipment which Jesus received from his human
heritage. With it, He began his ministry.

At first, however, slight use was made of it. Doubtless
the Gospels give us an accurate sequence here. That min-
istry begins with the teaching of his disciples and of the
people, and with the healing of the bodies and souls of men.
Only occasionally do we have a flash of the apocalyptical
vision, as when He sees Satan falling like lightning from
Heaven, or declares in the parable of the tares that evil at the
last will be destroyed by fire. But as Jesus advances in the
proclamation of his new kingdom, it becomes increasingly ap-
parent that against it are to be arrayed the kingdoms and

36 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

powers of this world. "Now is my soul troubled." (John
12:27.) The shadow of the Cross begins to fall across his
pathway, and He sets his face steadfastly to go up to Jeru-
salem. Sharper and sharper becomes the contrast between
good and evil. On the one hand there is his handful of dis-
ciples, themselves ignorant and feeble, and Himself, despised
and rejected of men, and on the other hand, the more deeply
He penetrates into the meaning of his ministry and of the
work of the redemption and salvation of the world, the more
definite become the two contrasting kingdoms — the kingdom
of this world and the kingdom of heaven. The more heavily
the kingdom of this world threatens to crush Christ, who not
only preached but in his own person typified the kingdom of
heaven, the more insistently there falls from his lips the
apocalyptical teaching that one day the kingdom of heaven
will be set up in this world, and He, the prince of righteous-
ness, will sit upon the throne. In part, this teaching was
projected into the future, and Christ saw and proclaimed that
distant advent, the precise day and hour of which He, Him-
self, did not know, but the Father only, when He would re-
appear in power and great glory. But again, this teaching
was concentrated upon the present hour, and Christ saw and
proclaimed that with the completion of his work, with his own
death and resurrection, that far-off and ultimate triumph was
already potentially achieved- This world was judged, its
kingdom was already overthrown, and the Son of Man was
already come. Without doubt He pointed to the Temple lind
declared that within that generation not one stone should
stand upon another. Without doubt He declared that soon
Jerusalem would be hedged in with heathen armies, as in the
days of Isaiah and Jeremiah. But surely we may say that
what really preoccupied the mind of Jesus was not a series of
probable or even certain historical and political events, but
rather the certainty that He had from his Father that if his
days were numbered, so also were those of the nation and
of the system that were casting Him forth. Through Jesus

ETHICAL VALUE OF APOCALYPTICAL PEOPHECY 37

Christ, God had made Himself felt as a fact upon Jerusa-
lem. The moral judgment typified and personified in the
Son of Man was speedily to fall upon that city and upon
that nation. That was the "time of the visitation" of Jeru-
salem. "Out of all the many days, there had been one day
on which the challenge of eternity had been concentrated.
The pressure of an eternal judgment had been brought to
bear upon the Holy City through the immediate presence of
the Son of Man. It had been brought under the scrutiny
of the Eternal and had delivered the verdict which was its
condemnation. And all this had come so suddenly that Jeru-
salem was not aware of what it had done." It was not in
any sense prepared for the time of its visitation. How real
and vital, thus understood, becomes the message of Jesus
to his disciples:

Therefore be ye ready; for in such an hour as ye think not
the Son of man cometh. (Matt, 24:44.)

Far from its being the truth that this teaching of Jesus
is a Jewish survival, or an element of weakness in his moral
outlook, what we really discover is that it is a necessary sup-
plement to his explicit moral and religious teaching.

"When death drew near and the shadow of the Cross fell
upon Him, conscious that as yet He had been unable to give
the spiritual riches of the kingdom of God full expression,
. . . and that his brief life was about to end, his earthly
work forever to be closed, He flung the reserved elements of
his teaching into symbolic form, and making use of the cur-
rent and familiar imagery of the Jewish Apocalypse, He ut-
tered these great and terrible closing words about his second
coming." *

It is as if He had said: "Hitherto I have been among you
in obscurity and weakness: I am now about to go away;
but I shall come again in glory and power to judge the
world and to bring in the kingdom of God." Obscurity there
may be — allusions that are not easy to explain or even to

1 See Cairns, op. cit., p. 200.

38 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

understand — a language with whose very vocabulary and im-
agery we are not familiar; but brushing these all aside the
main intention is plain : that just as there had been an ad-
vent in weakness, so there should be an advent in power;
just as He had come into this world sharing the limitations
of our humanity, so one day He would come with the infinite
prerogatives of ruler and judge: just as one day He had put
Himself at the mercy of men, so one day men would be at
the mercy of Him who would be judge of both the quick
and the dead. He was indeed going away, He said, but only
to a higher vantage ground from which He would exert a
far more powerful influence upon them and upon the world
than when He was with them in the flesh. And He would
still be the instrument of God in all the coming convulsions
of nature and history through which mankind will be judged
and the kingdom will come, just as He had under lowlier
conditions been the Father's instrument in succoring them in
the storm upon the lake, in feeding them with heavenly food,
and in washing their travel-stained feet.

The real meaning of the apocalyptical teaching of Jesus,
then, is his claim to be the rightful Lord of the entire world;
is his solemn assurance that though He might seem to be
leaving the world in humility and shame, the hour was ad-
vancing when that kingdom which He had come to found,
which thus far had found its lodgment only in the hearts of
a few Galilean peasants, would manifest its true character
in the great spheres of the world's life; when He, who was
born in a manger and was about to be spat upon, beaten
and crucified, would reappear as King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. When that reappearance should be, how it should
come to pass — these are questions secondary to this magnifi-
cent proclamation of the coming of the kingdom and the
coming of the King.

From this point of view, the apocalyptical teaching has a
true and permanent place in the message of Jesus. Neither
ethics nor apocalypse excludes the other; neither is subordi-

ETHICAL VALUE OF APOCALYPTICAL PBOPHECY 39

nate; and each is necessary to complete the whole. The
ethical message of Jesus would be incomplete without this
vision and solemn announcement of the ultimate overthrow
of evil and the triumph of righteousness. Doubtless this
truth was conveyed in language which to us may seem unin-
telligible and unfamiliar; but underneath it all, and running
through it all, and not forgetting the full reach and meaning
of it all, runs this sure conviction of the ultimate triumph
of the truth which He, a humble rabbi, a lover of men, an
itinerant preacher, had put in the hearts of his disciples and
of those who had ears to hear. That truth was destined one
day to overturn the world and usher in the kingdom of God.

The same importance is given to the apocalypse in the
teaching of St. Paul. Is it possible to imagine Paul without
the apocalyptical hope? He travels about the Roman Empire
with the light of the Gospel shining in his soul. He plants
little Christian colonies and instructs his disciples to be kind,
loving, forgiving, pure, earnest and faithful. Then he looks
about him and" what does he see? He sees the whole Roman
Empire in its vast power and in its impregnable sin.1 "As
he goes forward seeking to subdue the whole world for Christ,
he becomes aware that while to a certain extent the world can
be impressed by the Gospel, there is a whole social order of
untouched wrongs and cruelties that he cannot touch, evils
that are wholly against the mind of Christ, but that he can-
not touch or alter. Hoary institutions like slavery, state
paganism and the murderous gladiatorial games — what could
he do to destroy them? But one thing he could do. He could
set himself to win converts out of the heathen world; he
could plant in the hearts of men and of women the love and
fear of Jesus Christ; he could organize them into churches.
And for the rest? There was the great hope; there was the
great assurance — the Lord would come. Once He had come
in weakness; the next time He would come in power and in
glory, and Emperor and Sanhedrin would own Him alike."

1 Cairns, ibid., p. 213.

40 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

Then cometh the end when he . . . shall have put down
all rule and all authority and all power. For he must reign
till he hath put down all enemies under his feet. The last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (I Cor. 15:24,
25, 26.)

Do you think St. Paul could have lived without the apoca-
lyptic hope? Do you think even his courage would have sur-
vived despair without the knowledge that the Captain of his
salvation would one day reassume command and lead his hosts
to victory? Do you imagine that he found this teaching that
is "foreign to the serious culture of our time," foreign to
his own life or without its message to his own soul? Was it
unimportant or unnecessary, or was it the very bread of life
on which his soul fed and drew its daily help and strength?

And now we come to the end of the Bible. The story of
creation and redemption has been told. The full truth that
one day shall make all men free has been uttered by Christ
and interpreted by his inspired disciples. There is nothing
more to be said that is essential to the personal and social
salvation of all mankind. There stretch out the long and
apparently unending centuries of sin and strife, of crime and
injustice, of shame and war and inhumanity, of tears and
savage bloodshed. What shall be the fate of the Gospel in
such a history? How shall the idealism of Jesus fare in such
a world? What shall the outcome be in this gigantic strug-
gle between God and Satan, Christ and Caesar, the Host of
Heaven and the Armies of the Aliens?

Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in
his own blood. And hath made us kings and priests unto
God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever
and ever. Amen. Behold he cometh with clouds; and every
eye shall see him and they also which pierced him; and
all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even
so, Amen. I, John, . . . was in the spirit on the Lord's
day and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.
(Rev. 1:5-11.)

The Apocalypse with which the Bible closes is thus the di-
vine proclamation of the ultimate victory of God's truth in

ETHICAL VALUE OF APOCALYPTICAL PEOPHECY 41

spite of all the contradiction and opposition of the ages. In
no more inspired way could God's inspired Book have come
to its close.

In the same way every Christian who bears the Gospel truth
in his heart needs the apocalyptical hope. The ethics of Jesus
will not suffice. We must share in his vision of the final over-
throw of Satan and the coming of the Son of Man. Without
such a hope, days will come when the powers of darkness
will seem so overwhelming, the forces of evil so irresistible
and impregnable that we will cease to believe in their ulti-
mate destruction. Our hearts will grow weary, our arms will
grow weak, our courage will become faint. If in such an hour
we can fall back upon and be sustained by this inspiration
which has fired the hearts of the apostles and martyrs, we
will chant in the very face of the evil that threatens to de-
stroy us:

"But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of Glory passes on his way;

Alleluia!"

CHAPTER IV

OUTLINE AND CONTENTS

THE Book of Revelation is not a series of disjointed
chapters and disconnected visions. It is a carefully
constructed drama, arranged to produce the maximum effect.
No book in the Bible betrays more literary skill, a surer dra-
matic instinct, or possesses greater unity of design and ar-
tistic structure. Our study of it proceeds upon the assump-
tion that, in the main, it is the work of a single author, and
that this author has a plan of composition that runs through
it from beginning to end. Both of these statements are ques-
tioned by many Bible students who point out that the Jewish
apocalypses are, with the exception of the Book of Daniel,
compilations from various sources, without unity of author-
ship or design. In the same way the art and unity of the
Book of Revelation have been denied; and it has been held
that no consecutive plan of composition can successfully be
worked out.

This position is a possible one, and the matter of the unity
of certain portions of the book is still an open one with
Bible students. But to the mind of many, of whom the
writer of the present study of the Book of Revelation is one,
the unity of both authorship and plan is clear; and it can
safely be said that no conclusive argument against it has so
far been made.1 We proceed to our examination of its con-
tents, then, upon the assumption that the book is the single
work of a single inspired writer. The following outline
will indicate, in a general way, its plan and structure : 2

1 For a discussion of the whole subject, see Beckwith, pp. 216ff.

3 This outline is not closely followed in the succeeding chapters.
It will, however, enable the reader to grasp clearly the main argu-
ment of the book and the course of its development.

42

OUTLINE AND CONTENTS 43

I. Introduction. Chapter 1:1-3.

Statement of the subject and author, and exhortation to
the readers of the book.

II. Greeting. Chapter 1:4-8.

A salutation to the churches, and an ascription to Christ.

III. The Prophet's Commission. Chapter 1:9-20.

A vision in which the prophet receives his commission from
the risen and glorified Christ.

IV. Messages to the Churches. Chapters 2-3.

Introductory exhortations, commendations, and warnings to
the seven churches of Asia typical of all churches then and
now.

V. Visions of God and of Christ. Chapters 4-5.

The infinite God and the omnipotent Christ who form the
eternal background of the whole drama of the war between
good and evil.

VI. The Opening of the Seals of the Book. Chapter 6.

A vision of the destruction which God will bring upon the
world.

VII. The Salvation of the Faithful. Chapter 7.
A heavenly interlude of comfort and hope.

VIII. The Sounding of the Trumpets. Chapters 8-9.

The second judgments of God on the world, by nature, war,
pestilence, famine and death.

44 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

IX. A Pause before the Last Judgments. Chapters 10-

11 :1-13.

1. The prophet's new commission. Chapter 10.

2. The safety and reward of the faithful. Chapter 11 :1-13.

X. Preparation for the Final Conflict. Chapters 11:14-

14:1-20.

1. An anthem of praise for God's approaching victory.
Chapter 11 :14-19.

2. The powers of evil in array. Chapters 12-13.

a. Satan. Chapter 12.

b. Rome. Chapter 13.

3. The opposing host of Christ and his Saints. Chapter
14:1-5.

4. Warnings to flee from the wrath to come. Chapter
14:6-20.

XL The Last Judgments. Chapters 15-20.

1. Vision of the wrath of God in seven bowls, Chapters.
15, 16. * •

2. The Fall of Rome. Chapters 17, 18, 19 :l-5.

3. The Victory of Christ. Chapter 19 :6-21.

4. The Fall of Satan. Chapter 20 :1-10.

5. The General Resurrection. Chapters 20:11-25.

XII. The Heavenly City. Chapters 21, 22 :l-5.
XIII. The Epilogue. Chapters 22:6-21.

A careful examination of this outline will reveal the artistic
and dramatic structure of the book and the skill and effec-
tiveness with which it develops its theme. There is first the
solemn introduction, with its blessing upon all who hear
and keep the words of this prophecy. This is followed by
the salutation in the form made familiar in the letters of St.

OUTLINE AND CONTENTS 45

Paul, with its eloquent ascription to Christ. The author
then tells how he was commissioned to write the book. In a
vision he sees the omnipotent Christ who is described in the
language of Ezekiel and Daniel and Zachariah, and who com-
mands the prophet to write the things which he has seen to
the seven churches of Asia.

These chapters, which contain the messages to the churches,
are among the most familiar in the book. With their re-
iterated refrain of promise to him that overcometh, they are
constructed with singular literary skill and spiritual elo-
quence. In spite of local allusions, their main message is
still applicable to the church at any period of trials, worldli-
ness or apostasy. Before revealing the powers of evil and the
judgments of God upon them, the writer then proceeds in two
magnificent chapters to give us the eternal background, as it
were, against which all of the coming drama is to be enacted
(chapters 4 and 5). A sense of assurance and permanence is
at once created in the hearts of his readers. It is as if before
portraying scenes of great trial and suffering the words were
set down:

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall
not pass away. (Matt. 24:35.)

Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid:

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day and forever.
(I Cor. 3:11, Heb. 13:8.)

A door is opened and the seer passes through it and sees
God upon his throne, the Ancient of Days who sitteth throned
in glory, surrounded by the elders, and by all the heavenly
host who worship Him day and night, saying:

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour
and power. (Eev. 4: 11.)

The prophet observes that God holds a book in his right hand,
a roll sealed with seven seals. "It is the book of human des-
tiny." Christ alone is worthy to break the seals of the roll

46 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

and to reveal the future. He is the Lamb that has been
slain. "Amid choruses of praise which accompany the action
through the whole work like the lyric choruses of a Greek
tragedy,"1 the Lamb takes the book and one by one breaks
the seven seals. The visions of the future begin.

The opening of the seals of the book is a pictorial way of
describing the judgments of God upon an evil world, which,
for the author, is represented by the Roman Empire. The
four horses with their riders typify this punishment in its
various forms as conquest, war, famine and pestilence. At
the fifth seal, the souls of the martyrs cry for vengeance.
When the sixth seal is broken we have great convulsions of
nature (chapter 6).

Before the seventh seal is broken, however, we have an
interruption. These chapters, we need to remember, are writ-
ten to Christians who may already have suffered martyrdom,
and for whom persecution is still in store. With a touch of
spiritual genius, a passage of consolation and inspiration
is inserted before the final woe is pronounced. In the
familiar seventh chapter a promise of immortality is given to
all those not only of the household of Israel but of all na-
tions and kindreds who have come victoriously througk tribu-
lation into the blessedness of the redeemed.

The seventh seal is then opened. But instead of bringing
the end, it introduces a new series of seven, the seven blasts
of trumpets (chapters 8 and 9). By this literary device, the
author succeeds in his purpose of suggesting a long panorama
of events, an indefinite period of trial, and the obstinate re-
sistance of evil. It is to be no short struggle. Victory is not
to be won by a brief campaign. These two chapters are
given to a description, highly colored with apocalyptical
imagery, of the judgments following the sounding of six
trumpets. Again we await the consummation with the sound-
ing of the seventh trumpet; but once more the end is delayed.
The climax is to be still more portentous.

1 See J. H. Ropes, Harvard Theological Review, Oct. 1919, p. 419.

OUTLINE AND CONTENTS 47

The effect is further increased by what follows before the
sounding of the last trumpet. The prophet receives a fresh
commission as if he needed to be still further equipped for
the task that remains (chapter 10). Once more comes the
assurance that the faithful shall be preserved and that their
witness cannot be destroyed. Vast celestial preparations are
made for the impending and final conflict. A pasan of praise
is sung to God (chapter 11) ; the forces of the enemy are set
in array, the apparently irresistible forces of Satan and of
the Roman Empire (chapters 12 and 13). Over against these
are marshalled the Lamb and the hundred and forty and
four thousand of his saints; and a warning goes forth from
the lips of angels to all upon the earth: "Fear God and give
glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come" (chap-
ter 14).

This final judgment is pictured to us in the emptying of
seven bowls, such as were used for pouring libations at an
altar. The wrath of God is poured out upon a wicked world
(chapters 15, 16); the great and terrible day of the Lord
is come.

And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air;
and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven
. . . saying, It is done . . . and great Babylon came in re-
membrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine
of the fierceness of his wrath. (Rev. 16:17, 19.)

In lurid language and with an unparalleled eloquence of
spiritual emotion and triumph the downfall of Rome is por-
trayed for us, with all her luxury and glory and pride (chap-
ters 17, 18):

Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and
prophets; for God hath avenged you on her . . . And in her
was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all
that were slain upon the earth. (Rev. 18: 20, 24.)

The destruction of Rome is followed by a chorus of praise,
as a multitude chants with the voice of many waters:

Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. (Rev.
19:6.) .

48 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF. REVELATION

The Messiah has come, King of Kings and Lord of Lords
(chapter 19). And the victory of the Lamb means not only
the fall of Rome but the final defeat of Satan, who may indeed
break loose again for a while but shall eventually be

cast into the lake of fire and brimstone . . . and shall be
tormented day and night forever and ever. (Eev. 20:10.)

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away. (Rev. 21:1.)

So beautifully begins the closing chapters of the book, with
a sweet strain of heavenly harmony after the thunders and
lightnings, the earthquakes and judgments of the barbaric de-
scriptions of the destruction of evil in the preceding chapters.
It is like listening to a pastoral symphony after hearing the
tumult of brass instruments and cymbals and kettle-drums in
the thunder of the orchestra. This is followed by the familiar
description of the Heavenly City, the salvation of the saints,
and eternal joy of those who have been faithful unto death.

Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
(Rev. 22:20, 21.)

Such is the Book of Revelation. It is an Apocalypse de-
scribing for the Christians of the day in which it was written
the sure destruction of Rome by the armies of God and the
power of Christ. It is an exhortation to endure, to be patient
and steadfast in the sure knowledge that victory has been
prepared for them. The book contains untold inspiration for
all Christians in that it contains the great Social Hope without
which they cannot be faithful unto death and so receive the
crown of life.

CHAPTER V

THE INTRODUCTION AND THE MESSAGES TO THE CHURCHES

Revelation, Chapters 1-3

WE do not know who is the author of the Book of
Revelation. The traditional view is that he was the
Apostle John, the supposed author of the Fourth Gospel.
Scholars are, however, agreed that the author of the Fourth
Gospel and of the Book of Revelation cannot be the same
person. The difference in style and in religious conceptions is
too great, and the supposed similarities are too slight. Neither
is there anything to prove that the author was the Apostle
John. There is no claim anywhere in the book of apostolic
authorship. There are no personal references in it. The
writer nowhere indicates that he had known the historic Jesus,
and the pictures of Christ are different from those which would
have been drawn by one who had been associated with Him
in his earthly ministry.

All that we know of the author is that he gives his name
as John and that he was contemporary to the events which
he describes, and a brother and fellow in trial of those to
whom he writes.

Chapter I

1. The Superscription (1:1-3) with which the first chap-
ter opens is a solemn introduction to the whole book. The
real author of the book, we are told, is Christ, who receives
the revelation which is to follow from God and communicates
it through an angel to John. The revelation is the authori-
tative word of God. Those to whom it is written are ex-

49

50 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

horted to give heed to it, to listen attentively to these prophe-
cies since they tell of impending events, of things which are
to happen without delay. In this section, brief as it is, there
are spiritual lessons of much meaning. First, the Bible and
the whole Gospel message is an authoritative revelation. Our
whole attitude toward Christianity is much weakened if we
think of it as a system of thought rather than as a true revela-
tion of God. How much our Christian thinking would be
strengthened if we would preface it with this superscription!
Put these words above your creed and see if it is not ennobled
thereby. Second, God makes one man the channel of his
communication to other men. This channel is never closed,
and there is likely to be given to any of God's children a
special message of which he is the chosen mouthpiece. How
much our religious lives are enriched by this idea in their
relation both to God and to our fellowmen! Third, John
"bare record." He faithfully reproduced what had been
communicated to him. There was no loss in transmission.
What he received, he gave. This fidelity in the stewardship
of spiritual gifts is insisted upon both in the Gospels and in
the Epistles. To-day a chief cause of the lack of religious
interest is the ineffective and unconvincing lives of Christian
people. How much it would mean if every disciple of Christ
should "witness" in such a way as faithfully to reproduce the
Gospel in his life! Fourth, the book is to be read, we are
told, because of impending events. "The times are at hand."
These words are important as indicating that the book is
focused upon immediate historical events and is not concerned
with distant millennial happenings. Just so in our own lives,
this book should be used not as a guide to mysterious events
in the future, but as a practical inspiration for immediate
trials of our faith and patience. A blessing awaits the de-
vout mind which receives and observes the prophecies of
this book.

Chapter 1:1. This is the Bevelation of Christ Himself,
who received it from God that He might disclose to his

INTRODUCTION AND MESSAGES TO CHURCHES 51

servants what is about to happen. Through an angel, Jesus
communicated this revelation to John, 2. who transmitted
faithfully all things that he saw. 3. Blessed the man who
reads and hears and lays to heart what is here recorded,
for the time is come when it shall be fulfilled.

Notes v. 1 Revelation used only in the New Testament in
the sense of an unfolding of future events. For other uses,
see Lk. 12:2; Rom. 8:19, 16:25; Gal. 1:12; II Thess. 2:8.
The full name Jesus Christ used only in this chapter (and
22:21). Elsewhere Jesus is used. Shortly come to pass i.e.,
the book deals with contemporary and not with mediaeval or
modern history, v. 3 The book is to be read publicly in the
churches, together with the Old Testament (I Tim. 4:13)
and the writings of the Apostles (Col. 4:16; I Thess. 5:27).

2. The Introduction (1:4-8). John greets the seven churches
in Asia, invoking upon them the grace and peace of God and
of Christ. God is here described, as many times in the book,
with the attribute of timelessness. By the seven (the perfect
number) spirits, is meant the spirit of God Himself, "per-
fect and one in its various workings." Christ has been a
faithful witness, and was raised from the dead to be the
divine ruler of men. There follows this beautiful ascription
to Christ, one of the most familiar in the New Testament
and one which must have been unspeakably eloquent to the
persecuted Christians to whom it first came, since it reminded
them that Christ gained his heavenly peace through suffering,
that his love will not only cleanse us from sin but will exalt
us to be kings and priests with Him. It is this Christ who
is coming to judge the world (Dan. 7:13; Zech. 12:10).
God attests this by his Name (Ex. 3:14; Isaiah 44:6, 48:12).

This passage is of great interest in the development of
Christian doctrine, since we have here a loosely formulated
Trinitarian formula. The unique thing about it is that the
Spirit is put second and not third. The ascription to Christ,
who is given divine prerogatives, is evidence of the impres-
sion produced by the personality of Christ and by the real-

52 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

ities of Christian experience upon the mind of this Jewish
Christian writer, "a true son of a race with which monotheism
had become a passion." The description of God contains the
important idea of God as a living and active participant in
the affairs of men. "Him who is and was and is to come"
implies his presence. It means God is here. All great relig-
ious characters have lived and labored in that persuasion.
It is the ground of the Social Hope. The earliest Gospel in-
sists upon the close connection between Christ and freedom
from slavery to sin; from the first it has been "freedom for
service"; for we are to be citizens of a spiritual kingdom,
having like priests, access to God in order that we may
minister to the spiritual needs of men. Early in the book the
idea is conveyed, which runs through it to the end, of an
omnipotent Christ overthrowing evil and discomfiting his
foes. The idea, familiar to readers of Paul's letters (Rom.
8:37; I Cor. 15:24) and the Epistle to the Hebrews, is here
given true expression. This spiritual idea will lie at the root
of the Christian faith in the second coming of Christ. In
the end, that is, it is to be a Christ victorious. In that faith
we can labor with serenity and hope. This is the source and
unshakable basis of the Christian optimism which is one of
the outstanding characteristics of the Book of Revelation.

Chapter 1:4. John greets the seven churches in Asia
with the blessing of God and of the spirits of God perfect
in all their manifestations, 5. and of Christ who was a
faithful witness and was raised from the dead and made
the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who by his
love not only redeemed us from sin, 6. but made us also
to be kings and priests, be glory and power forever. 7.
Look, He comes upon the clouds and all shall see Him who
crucified Him and shall be filled with terror and dismay.
8. I, the Lord God, who am and who was, shall also come,
even the Almighty.

Notes v. 4 John He is evidently so well known to his
readers that further identification is unnecessary. Seven
churches Many other churches are known to have existed in
the province (e.g. Colossae, Col. 1:2, Troas, II Cor. 2:12).

INTRODUCTION AND MESSAGES TO CHURCHES 53

These seven represent not only all churches in Asia, but the
whole church in the world. It is a book with a universal
message to a universal church. Seven spirits (See 3:1, 4:5,
5:6.) The Holy Spirit is meant. The figure is taken from
Zech. 4:2-10. v. 5 first-begotten See Col. 1:18; prince (or
ruler), i.e., the common Messianic conception of Christ. (See
17:14, 19:16.) v. 6 (See Dan. 7:18, 27; I Cor. 6:2. See also
Ex. 19:6.) v. 7 (See Matt. 24:30; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27.
Also, Zech. 12:10-12.) v. 8 An unannounced change of
speaker is common with the writer. (See 16:15, 18:20.)
For this thought of God, cf. Isa. 41:4, 44:6, 48:12. In 22:13
practically this same language is applied to Christ.

3. The Prophet's Call and Commission (1:9-20). The au-
thor describes in detail how he was commissioned to give
this prophecy. In this, he follows the example of many of
the Old Testament prophets. (1) With the aid of a good map
and reference to W. M. Ramsay's "The Letters to the Seven
Churches," the reader will study the geography of Asia
Minor, and familiarize himself with the topography of the
whole region. Patmos was an island lying about fifteen miles
off the coast from Ephesus. It was some thirty miles in cir-
cumference, and thither exiles were sent to work in the mines
and marble quarries. (2) Read Dan. 10:5-9 and Zech. 4:4-6,
and see how closely in his description of Christ the author
has followed the "apocalyptical model." This imagery is not
original with the writer, but is adopted from the Jewish
literature with which he is familiar. (3) Note the tender way
in which the author speaks of himself as their brother and
fellow in their sufferings. In "the tribulation and kingdom"
they were partakers together. Thus in every moment of social
stress and struggle the modern Christian may feel himself
to be the companion of the apostles and martyr of all the
ages. (4) Think of the hope expressed in the faith that the
living Christ was in the sphere in which they lived and labored
and suffered. This has been ever since the source of the
abounding social hope of all Christians. Compare Kingsley's

54 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

words: "I am struggling through infinite darkness and chaos
by means of one great bright pathway which I find to be
the only escape from infinite confusion, the only explanation
of a thousand human mysteries — I mean the Incarnation of
our Lord." Compare also Hebrews 2 :8, 9, where, in the
midst of a ruined world the writer is full of courage because
he can "see Jesus," although "now we see not yet all things put
under him." There is no substitute for this vision of Christ
as the sure ground of social optimism. Only to those who
share this vision can the words be spoken, "Fear not." (5)
The question of whether these visions were an objective reality
or not is not one upon which one can dogmatize. An objective
experience of this kind lay behind the life and work of St.
Paul, of St. Augustine, of St. Francis and of Martin Luther,
to mention only a few outstanding historical examples. One
would need to know more than is known about religious psy
chology to assert that the visions in this book were a mere
literary device; at the same time the value and moral meaning
of the Book of Revelation do not depend on any one theory
concerning the nature of visions. (6) Note the suggestive
symbolism of the churches, (a) Each church has a person-
ality of its own. There are seven distinct and separate lamps,
(b) The function of the church is to give light, whether as
a lamp within or as a star shining overhead, (c) This light
is drawn from Christ Himself, who walks among them that
He may replenish them and keep them burning.

"0 make thy church, dear Saviour,
A lamp of burnished gold
To bear before the nations
Thy true light as of old."

Chapter 1:9. I, John, your companion in faith and afflic-
tion, was in the island of Patmos in banishment because I
preached the Gospel. 10. On the Lord's day I was inspired,
so that I heard a loud voice 11. commanding me to write
what I heard to the seven chief churches in Asia. 12.
When I turned to see who spoke, 13. I saw Christ Himself

INTRODUCTION AND MESSAGES TO CHURCHES 55

standing in the midst of seven candlesticks. He was clothed
like a priest, 14. but his aspect was kingly, with flaming
eyes and 15. shining feet and a voice like the roaring sea.
16. He had seven stars in his right hand and a sword
came out of his mouth. 17. I was overcome at the sight.
But he touched me and told me not to be afraid, saying:
18. I, too, am first and last, and am alive forever and have
gained authority over Death. 19. Write the things that
you have seen and shall see. 20. The meaning of the
stars and the candlesticks is this: the candlesticks are
the churches, and the stars are their angels, their spirit.

Notes v. 9 The personal reference (cf. Dan. 8:1, 10:2;
II Esdras 2:42, 3:1) is to emphasize the fellowship between
writer and reader. For the testimony i.e. because of, in ban-
ishment for preaching the Gospel, v. 10 A state of ecstasy is
meant, (cf. 4:2, 17:3, 21:10. See also Acts 22:17, II Cor.
12:3, 4.) Lord's Day i.e. the first day of the week. (I Cor.
16:2; Acts 20:7.) The expression is here used for the first
time, but it must already have been in common use. V. 12
For the lamp-stand as symbol of the church, cf. Matt. 5:14,
Phil. 2:15. (See Zech. 4.) v. 13ff. This description of Christ
(v. 17) is taken from Dan. 10:5-6, 7:9. We touch thus early
on the "exalted Christology" of this book. The sword in
the mouth (v. 16) occurs frequently in the book (cf. 2:12,
16, 19:15, 21. See also Isa. 11:4; Heb. 4:12). v. 16 Stars
(Possibly suggested by Dan. 12:3) These are another symbol
of the churches. If lamp-stands suggests the presence of
Christ in the church, the stars suggest his power to uphold it.
v. 17 (See Ezek. 1:28; Dan. 8:17; Matt. 17:6; Acts 26:14.)
v. 18 Keys cf. the expression "gates of death." Hades was
popularly looked upon as a prison-house of the dead (cf.
Matt. 16:19; Rev. 3:7, 9:1, 20:1). v. 19 The things which the
prophet has seen are defined in the two clauses which follow
(and not in what has preceded) : viz. (1) the present con-
dition of the churches, and the Lord's special message to them,
as well as the present and eternal presence of God and of
Christ ("the things that are"), and (2) the coming judg-
ments and their results ("the things that shall be"), v. 20

56 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

Mystery, i.e. something secret, which is disclosed only to
special persons, in special ways. (See Dan. 2:18; Rev.
17:5, 7.)

4. The Messages to the Churches (chapters 2, 3). All of
these messages must be studied in two ways: first, with re-
spect to the immediate historical situation, and, second, in
their broader aspect as spiritual messages to the church
universal. Even in the writer's day, the number seven was
symbolic. There were many more churches in Asia than these
seven. The number is used to include them all. In an even
more inclusive sense, the number seven can be taken to in-
clude all churches of whatever age or clime. "The idea that
the individual church is part of the universal church, that it
stands for it after the usual symbolic fashion of the Apoca-
lypse, is never far from the writer's mind. And he passes
rapidly between the two points of view, the direct address to
the local church . . . and the general application ... to
the entire Church as symbolised by the particular local
church." * Our study of the messages will have regard to both
of these viewpoints. The reader will have no difficulty in
tracing the materials in these chapters to their sources in the
Old Testament. The reader will also bear in mind that these
messages are not to be considered as a section by themselves
as if they had no relation to what precedes and follows. That
connection, on the contrary, is very close. If you take the
seven descriptions of Christ in the letters and put them to-
gether, you will have the full description of Christ as found
in chapter I. The author is carrying out in detail his idea
of the living Christ present in the actual life of the churches.
Furthermore, it is the author's evident dramatic purpose to
address solemn words of exhortation and warning to the
churches to overcome and to hold fast and let no man take
their crown, before proceeding to unfold the terrible panorama
of the triumphant struggle of Christ with Satan, of the
church with the Roman Empire.

1 See Ramsay, op. cit, pp. 200, 206.

INTRODUCTION AND MESSAGES TO CHURCHES 57

(1) The Message to the Church at Ephesus (2:1-7)

Ephesus was at this time the foremost city of Asia Minor in
rank, historical importance and wealth. It was a great com-
mercial center, and also the home of many non-Christian re-
ligious cults, and the site of the famous Temple of Diana. At
the time that this book was written, adherents of the "Nicolai-
tans" who had defended unchastity and idolatry, had preached
there. But the church had rejected them and resisted their
teaching. Evidently, however, brotherly love had suffered in
the struggle, and this the church is exhorted to regain.

Chapter 2:1. To the guardian-angel of the church at
Ephesus write: He who controls and is in the midst of
the churches, says, 2, 3. I am aware of your patient endur-
ance and your refusal to tolerate evil men and faljse
apostles. 4. Yet you have lost something of your brotherly
love. 5. This you must recover upon penalty of losing your
position as a true church of Christ. 6. Your zeal against
the Nicolaitans is praiseworthy. 7. He who is victorious
shall eat of the tree of life.

Notes The reader will familiarize himself with the city of
Ephesus, its location, wealth, influence. (See Acts 19 :21ff.
Also W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul, the Roman Citizen; and The
Letters to the Seven Churches, pp. 210ff. Also Hastings'
Bible Dictionary in loco.) v. 1 The message is to the angel
of the church: i.e. the church's real spirit, or as we might
say "better self"; that "self which is always stimulated to con-
sciousness whenever God's voice is truly heard by it." It is
always to the angel in the church (or in us) that God speaks.
v. 2 I know thy works. "Every act of faith, every ministry
of self-denial, every humble acceptance of the Cross . . .
has its record in heaven." * Think how insignificant was this
handful of Christians in great pagan Ephesus. What an en-
couraging example to any little congregation that feels itself
to be lost amid its surrounding worldliness! Apostles, i.e.
itinerant preachers. (See II Cor. 11:5, 13, 12:11.) Warn-

1 Scott, p. 56.

58 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

ings against false teachers appear throughout the New Testa-
ment. It is a great power which belonged to that church to
distinguish between the true and the false. To-day in the
midst of many "strange doctrines" and aberrations from the
simplicity of Christ, it is a distinction if the church can "di-
vine where real right doth lie" and hold to the norm of Chris-
tian truth, v. 3 Note that this church already had suffered
severe persecutions. These are the background of the whole
book of Revelation, v. 4 Love in its outward and social mani-
festations, in its objective power and initiative is the true
"thermometer" of the life of the church, v. 5 For an ingenious
explanation of this as a change in geographical location, see
Ramsay, "Seven Churches," p. 245. v. 6 No matter how often
we may fail, to hate what God hates is to be in the way of
salvation, v. 7 The tree of life in the Paradise of God — thus
the last book of the Bible joins hands with the first. What
man was forbidden to eat there because of sin, he is bidden
to eat here because he has been "washed and made clean."

(2) The Letter to Smyrna (2:8-11)

Smyrna, a city of great antiquity, is the only one of the
seven cities that to-day is of any importance. Its prosperity
is due to its wonderful seaport location. In New Testament
times it rivaled Ephesus in importance, was closely bound to
Rome, and was the chosen site of the Temple built in honor
of the Emperor Tiberius. In such an environment the primi-
tive church confronted overwhelming odds. Up to this time
Smyrna had been free from Roman, persecutions, which,
however, are about to begin. Their trial, like St. Paul's,
had been at the hands of the Jews. We see here the transi-
tion from the one to the other. The tomb of Polycarp the
Martyr (155 A.D.), still shown at Smyrna, is witness both
to the reality and also to the end of the persecution of the
church at Smyrna. How much it needed, how much we need
to-day, the comfort of Him who is the present Christ, and who

INTRODUCTION AND MESSAGES TO CHURCHES 59

Himself came out of death into life ! Not a word of blame is
attached to this church of Christ's poor; only the unforget-
table promise of the crown of life. By the crown is to be
understood not a material object, like the laurel wreaths
of the victor, but the spiritual reward of a larger and more
abundant life. This is the true Christian doctrine of reward.

Chapter 2:8. To the guardian-angel of the church of
Smyrna write: He who died and lives eternally says: 9. I
know your steadfastness amid the persecutions of those who
falsely call themselves Jesus. 10. Do not fear the even
worse trials which are about to befall you. Be faithful
and you will win the martyrs' prize. 11. The conqueror
will suffer the death of the body but not of the soul.

Notes Read about Smyrna. (See Ramsay, "The Letter to
the Seven Churches," op. cit. pp. 251ff, and other authorities).
v. 9 Throughout the Book of Revelation the Christian is, to
the mind of the writer, the true Jew. v. 10 In the expression
ten days we have the first of many time indications to be
found in the book. The symbolism of numbers in apocalypti-
cal writing precludes the possibility of understanding them
literally when referring to extension in time or space. When
they refer to objects, the writer doubtless has a definite number
in mind. But in regard to time and space the numbers de-
note generalized ideas: such as completeness, perfection,
(three, seven, twelve) ; or unknown duration (as a thousand
years) ; or a broken period of time (three and three and a
half and its multiples). The effort to construct actual time-
tables of events out of this symbolic use of numbers can only
be called grotesque. The student will recall how this numeri-
cal symbolism is carried over from Jewish writings (See Dan.
9:25; 12:11, 12). Ten days The writer here means to convey
the idea that the time of persecution will be brief and definite.
The fact that a fixed time is set for the triumph of evil is one
of the characteristic comforts in all apocalypses. A reviving
of this idea would have much to do with the invigoration of
our Social Hope. It is the time relation which perplexes and
finds its utterance in the cry "How long?" The idea that

60 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

this answer is known to God, if not to us, is a source of social
inspiration.

(3) The Church at Pergamum (2:12-17)

Pergamum had been the royal city of ancient native king's,
and situated on a high hill, it was royal to behold. It re-
mained, at least to the end of the century, the seat of the
Roman government and the residence of the pro-consul of
Asia. The phrase "Where Satan has his throne," is an un-
doubted and intensely interesting reference to Pergamum as
the seat of emperor-worship in Asia Minor. This included the
erection of temples, the first of which was built at Pergamum,
since it was the seat of the provincial government. The plain
reference to a martyr by name is proof that persecution for
failure to worship the Emperor already had begun, and refer-
ence to the Nicolaitans shows how general was this perni-
cious teaching. Surely for these little churches there were
"fears within and foes without." Consider what a witness to
the austere morality existing in these little Christian com-
munities in the midst of heathen licentiousness is indicated
by the sharp rebuke to this persecuted church because of the
lapse of a few of its members.1 But behind and above that
church was the two-edged sword of One who is King of Kings
and Lord of Lords, mighty to save. There is social comfort
there for Pergamum of old and for many a church at Per-
gamum to-day.

Chapter 2: 12. To the guardian-angel of the church at
Pergamum write: He whose words can cut like a sword
says: 13. I know that you are in the center of Satanic
persecution, and that although a martyr has already fallen,
you did not deny me. 14. Yet there are some among you
who practice and teach immoralities, 15. and the heresies I
hate. 16. Eepent, or I will come and destroy you. 17. The
victor shall receive mystic food and a secret name written
on stone.

1 See Ernst von Dobschiitz, Christian Life in the Primitive Church,
1904,

INTRODUCTION AND MESSAGES TO CHURCHES 61

Notes Pergamum (the neuter is the more common form).
(See Ramsay, op. eit. pp. 281fT., and consult other authorities
as above.) v. 12 The idea is the destroying power of the con-
demnation of Christ, so frequently appearing in this book,
v. 13 Satan's throne, i. e. the seat of Emperor-worship. Noth-
ing more is known of Antipas. v. 14 Balaam. (See Num.
31:16ff.) v. 15 Nicolaitans. Our only knowledge of this sect
is the information contained in this book. v. 17 For the
source of the word hidden manna, see Ex. 16:32-34, Heb.
9 :4. It was manna "kept before the ark in the holy place
which was hidden by God when the temple was destroyed,
and kept for the Messianic age." * To eat of this manna
was to be one of the joys of the Messianic Age. (See
John 6:48-51.) Christ Himself to the Christian is thus the
heavenly manna. For the source of the secret name, it is
probable that we must look not to Jewish sources but to the
pagan practice of attaching mystical and even magical signifi-
cance to secret names, the knowledge of which conferred
supernatural powers and unlocked mysteries, since they were
regarded as a password or Open Sesame. The white stone,
an amulet containing the victor's name as an inscription,
giving power against every enemy. But Christ gives a
new secret name which opens the gates of everlasting life.
If this explanation is the correct one, how it illustrates the
way in which even the most superstitious ideas of the age
could be turned to divine uses by the Spirit of a Christian
inspiration ! 2

(4) The Church at Thyatira (2:18-29)

This letter is the longest and the most obscure and difficult.
Thyatira was a town of little importance. It had no natural
advantages, no famous past history. It was the humblest of
all the seven cities. Its chief industry was that of dyeing
woolen goods. It was a Gentile church, and the Jews are not

1 Porter, p. 206.

2 See Beckwith, pp. 462, 3.

62 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF KEVELATION

mentioned. It had had a good record of love and service,
but the Nicolaitan teachings, resisted elsewhere, had gained
the upper hand here, and for this the church is severely con-
demned, in the hope that it may be summoned to repentance.

Chapter 2: 18. Also write to the guardian-angel of the
church at Thyatire: He whose vision searches the heart
and who abides in strength says: 19. I know your many
virtues. 20. But you permit the presence of a false prophet-
ess who teaches you false doctrines and practices. 21. She
has refused to repent, 22. and I will destroy her and her
devotees, 23. that all the churches may know that I dis-
cern the heart. 24. I add no other warning to those of you
who have not known, as they say, the deep things of Satan,
25. except to hold fast. 26. The conqueror will rule over
the Gentiles. 27. and they shall be destroyed as God Him-
self said. 28. Also I will give him the brightness of the
morning-star. 29. Give heed to this message.

Notes For Thyatira, See Ramsay and Hastings, v. 18 A
picture of the all-seeing and kingly Christ, (cf. II. Chron.
16:9, Luke 2:35, 8:17; I Cor. 4:5, 14:25; Heb. 4:13.)
How ably this description completes the picture of the "meek
and lowly Jesus," as an authoritative reviewer and arbiter
in our world of chaotic and unjust social conditions ! The feet
of burnished brass are indicative of strength. Note that the
attributes of omniscience and omnipotence ascribed to Christ
are those which are the most characteristic attributes of God in
the Old Testament. Yet here in the New Testament we find
a Jewish writer raising Jesus to the plane of God. It is
indirect evidence of the impression produced by Christ which
could create this revolution of thought, v. 19 "Love, faith,
ministry, patience." What a wonderful record for a church
in the days in which this book was written, record which can
be paralleled to-day on many a mission field at home and
abroad ! It suggests the full spiritual program for any
church, v. 20 Study the use of the words "prophets" and
"prophecy" in the New Testament as related to the life of the
church, by the use of Hastings' Bible Dictionary. Prophets
were a recognized class in the primitive churches, second only

INTRODUCTION AND MESSAGES TO CHUECHES 63

to apostles, whose claim rested upon "gifts of the Spirit."
Then, as now, the distinction between true and false prophets
was possible only by an enlightened conscience (cf. Deut.
13:1-3). This false teaching in lax morals has its parallel
in our day. The question of partaking of idolatrous sacri-
fices evidently continued to be a burning one after St. Paul's
day. "No other burden" is an evident echo from Acts 15. A
distinction is to be made between eating things strangled with
blood and being participators in idolatrous feasts which would
be equivalent to idolatrous worship (cf. Acts 15 :28 and I Cor.
10:21). It may well be that in this case these feasts were
accompanied with licentiousness (cf. Jude 4, 7). As against
all this teaching that the freedom of the Christian life implied
freedom also from the moral law, cf . Rom. 6 :1, 2, Gal. 5 :13ff.
v. 24 The deep things of Satan i.e. plainly unholy things
which are "camouflaged" as profound truths which only the
learned and initiated can understand. Precisely so in our
day, departures from the simple rules of conduct are often
spoken of as evidences of a higher worldly wisdom, v. 26 The
rule over the nations included the Roman Empire itself. What
a wonderful confirmation of this apparently impossible pro-
phecy is afforded by the history of Christianity during the
two centuries which followed! v. 28 morning-star. An ob-
scure symbol, perhaps derived from Dan. 12:3. (See Job.
38:7.) In 22:16, Christ Himself is the morning-star.

(5) The Church at Sardis (3:1-6)

Sardis had been the capital of a great kingdom, but its
glory had waned. Its natural situation gave it the appear-
ance of being impregnable, yet it had often been taken.
When this letter was written, it had been outstripped by its
rivals Ephesus and Smyrna, and was of third-rate importance.
The history of the city is thus closely paralleled by the history
of the church within. Apparently it had had an untroubled
history; nothing is said of hostility or persecution. The very

64 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF KEVELATION

lack of it may account for its indifference and apathy. The
purpose of the message is to call it back to life.

Chapter 3: 1. And write this to the guardian-angel of
the Church at Sardis: He that has divine omniscience
says: I know that you are thought to be alive. In reality
you are dead. 2. Wake up and reinforce what little good
remains, for nothing that you have done is complete before
God. 3. Eecall what you have learned and repent, lest I
come upon you with sudden judgment. 4. There are some
undefiled persons left among you who will walk with me
when I come. 5. These shall be found written in the book
of life and shall be known before God as my disciples.
6. Give heed to this message.

Notes For Sardis, see Ramsay, pp. 369ff. Also Hastings'
Bible Dictionary, v. 1 By comparing v. 1 with chapter 2, v. 1,
a difference is noted. There Christ is represented as walking
amid the candlesticks. Here we are told that Christ
holds in his hand not only the seven stars but also the seven
spirits of God. In this new phrase the author may desire
to express the idea that although the earthly influence (candle-
sticks) of the church at Sardis has waned, its heavenly coun-
terpart (stars) still remains, and that Christ through his
Spirit is still able to revive the soul of his church. This idea
of the essential immortality of the earthly shrine of the spirit
of Christ is beautiful and true. Thou art dead. This is true of
many a modern church which has lost its communicating and
vitalizing power, and of many people who may seem to be
healthy, but are not, in any real spiritual sense, alive. It be-
comes a most earnest and practical question with any soul : Am
I dead or am I alive? To what extent can it be said that I am
truly living? v. 2 Always for purposes of self -recovery, one
can establish what remains. This is the secret of the op-
timism of all true social workers. Like their Master, they
"know what is in man" (John 2:25), and their eyes pierce
through the outward corruption to the divine remainder of
manhood within, and proceed to build upon that. If there
was such a remainder in the church at Sardis, surely there is
in its modern counterpart, whether church or individual.

INTRODUCTION AND MESSAGES TO CHURCHES 65

Always there is at least the memory of what has been heard
at home, at church, of prayer, God, Christ, Bible. To hold
fast to this and to repent is the beginning of a new life,
w. 4, 5 We have here the suggestion of the "inner shrine"
of even this corrupted church, the undefiled souls of the faith-
ful remnant. Even in the most decadent church to-day this
saving remnant can always be found. The origin of the
phrase the book of life goes back to the Old Testament (Ex.
32:32; Ps. 69:28; Dan. 7:10; Mai. 3:16). It is there used
as the roll of the blessed as it is used here. But in Rev. 20 :12
it is also used as the book of judgment in which the deeds of
men are recorded. It is in this latter sense that chief use has
been made of the figure by Christian theology. I will confess
his name, a reminiscence, and almost a quotation of one of
the words of Jesus: Matt. 10:32; Mark 8:38; Lk. 12:8.

(6) The Church at Philadelphia (3:7-13)

The city was so named because of the loyal conduct of
Attalus Philadelphus toward his brother and predecessor
Eumenes II. It was founded B.C. 189. It was a place of
importance in the imperial organization of Asia, possessing
wealth and influence, and serving as a trade center for the dis-
trict. The message warns of trials to come, urges fidelity, and
promises a sure reward. A singular interest attaching to this
epistle is the description it gives in v. 9 of the relation of an-
cient Israel to the "true Israel" of God, "one which must have
perplexed every Christian Jew." *

Chapter 3: 7. And to the guardian-angel of the church
at Philadelphia write: He that is holy and true and
has authority to admit and exclude whom he will, says,
8. I know your faithfulness. With but a little strength,
you have not denied me. 9. I will cause the false Jews to
be subject to you. 10. Because of your fidelity, I will
guard you in the day of judgment. 11. Expect my coming,
that you do not lose your reward. 12. The victor shall have

1 See Beckwith, op. cit., pp. 477, 478.

66 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

a permanent place in God's temple, and shall be known as
belonging to God, and as a citizen of the Heavenly City.
13. Give heed to this message.

Notes For Philadelphia, see Ramsay, pp. 391ff., and other
authorities, v. 7 This epithet is taken from Isa. 22:22. (See.
Heb. 3:6; Matt. 16:19), and expresses supreme power, v. 8
open door This refers possibly to its position "on the thresh-
old of the eastern country and to the rapidity with which
the new religion was spreading . . . through the cities con-
nected with Philadelphia." The door gives an entrance into
missionary activity. How true it is of every church to-day that
such a spiritual opportunity is presented to it. (Compare I
Cor. 16:9; II Cor. 2:12; Col. 4:3). The reward for this
church of faithful work at home was the presenting of larger
opportunity beyond. Thus the spiritual history of this church
is an illustration in primitive Christianity of our Lord's par-
able of the talents.1 v. 9 The synagogue of Satan (cf. chap.
2:9.) Note in this verse, which is quite in accord with the
teaching of Christ in Matt. 20:26-28, the reversal of the
prophecy in Isa. 61 :4-6. Without doubt the primitive Chris-
tians were persecuted by the Jews for the same reason that
Christ Himself was. Their teaching, like his, seemed to con-
flict with the intense nationalistic and "patriotic" sentiment of
the Jews "to which its monotheism served as a buttress." To
what extent to-day does Christian teaching take issue with the
spirit of nationalism and "patriotism" falsely so-called? v. 10
"The reward of keeping is being kept." Even this church
to which no word of reproach is directed is not to escape trial,
but it is to be kept through trial. The reward of virtue and
fidelity is never immunity from pain, nor outward prosperity
but the fellowship of Christ in suffering, v. 11 "I come
quickly." This is a note frequently heard throughout this
book, and repeated in its last verse. In its most literal signi-
fication it may well refer to the Advent hope of all early Chris-
tians, which was not literally fulfilled. Doubtless for them

1 The phrase may, however, mean simply an entrance into the glories
of Christ's kingdom. See Rev. 3 : 20, 4:1; John 10 : 7, 9.

INTRODUCTION AND MESSAGES TO CHURCHES 67

also, however, it meant the impending judgment of Christ upon
the old world order, which was fulfilled. For all of us it
contains the solemn truth of the imminence of a divine judg-
ment upon all social iniquity and also the speedy revelation
of the worth of every soul when it stands open and manifest
in his sight (I Cor. 4, 5). v. 12ff. The promise of stability
is given to a city in which the memory of a devastating earth-
quake was still fresh. (See Ramsay pp. 408ff. cf. Heb. 12 :27-
28.) In place of a statue in an earthly temple with one's name
inscribed upon it, the faithful shall be under God's own name
and sign (John 10:3; II Tim. 2:19), and be admitted and
declared members of the divine society of men (cf. Eph.
2:19-22).

(8) The Church at Laodicea (3:14-22)

The history of this church is the opposite of that at Phila-
delphia. The city lay mid-way in a long valley connecting
Ephesus with the East. It was the judicial and financial cen-
ter of the district, founded for the purpose of transmitting
to the interior Greek civilization and commerce, but failing
in the accomplishment of this purpose. It imported, but
failed to export; it received but failed to give. It grew to be
a luxurious but ineffective center of wealth, and died from self-
indulgence and apathy. This church was not suffering from
either immorality or heresy, but from self-complacency and
satisfaction. The teaching of Revelation accords with that of
Christ in condemnation of the self-righteous Pharisee, the
unprofitable servant, the harmless, respectable, "moral" church
or individual. Selfishness, whether in church or individual,
is the cardinal Christian sin. There may be more harm and
danger in negative morality than in open hostility. Saul
of Tarsus may become St. Paul the Apostle, but there is no
future for one who is neither hot nor cold.

Chapter 3: 14. Also to the guardian-angel of the church
at Laodicea write: He whose word is truth, the faithful
witness-bearer, who stands at the head of creation, says:

68 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

15. Because you are indifferent, neither good nor bad, 16.
I will abhor you; 17. for you are rich outwardly but spirit-
ually you are bankrupt. 18. I advise you to get from me
true riches, the wedding garment, and salve for blindness.
19. If I speak severely, it is only because I love you. 20.
I am ready to come in wherever I am welcomed as a guest.
21. The conqueror will share in my triumph even as I
shared in that of my Father. 22. Give heed, to this mes-
sage.

Notes For Laodicea, see authorities as above, v. 14 Christ
is here described as the creative agent of God. (John 1:3;
Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2) v. 18 Laodicea was renowned for its
fabrics,1 the materials for which were provided by a famous
black wool. It also had a medical school and manufactured
an ointment for the eyes which was everywhere sought and
used. These features of its material prosperity are used
to prescribe for its spiritual needs. V. 20. "I stand at the
door." We commonly think of truth as hiding itself behind
a door to which we must find the key,2 when, as a matter
of fact, from Genesis (Gen. 3:9) to Revelation, we are shown
God and Christ as seeking us. "If any man will but open the
door, I will come in." v. 21 The rewards and blessings of
life here and hereafter are not for those who seek to escape
the hard things of life, but for those who, taking their share
of life's hardships, endure and overcome. (See Mark 8:34;
II Tim. 2:3.) True men are not looking for the easy thing.
In sports, in work, or in adventure it is the call to the heroic
that wins a response. This is the martial summons of the
Bible, not to a life of indolent acceptance of blessings pre-
pared for it, but to the sacrificial life that dares and endures.
The recovery of this appeal would mean the winning of men to
Christ and his cause.

1 See Ramsay, pp. 428, 9.

2 See F. G. Peabody, Mornings in the College Chapel, pp. 107-9.

CHAPTER VI

THE ETERNAL BACKGROUND

Revelation, Chapters 4 and 5

THE literary and spiritual purpose of these two chapters,
and their place in the unfolding drama of the Apoca-
lypse, are not hard to understand. The exhortation to the
churches of Asia and through them to the churches of every
place and time having been completed, the author is about
to address himself to the revelation which has been given him
of the judgment of God upon the world and of the impending
trial and persecution of his people, which is to result in the
victory of his cause and the reward of the faithful. Before,
however, proceeding to a description of this struggle, tre-
mendous in its scope and its consequences, the author gives us,
in these two chapters, as a background against which this battle
will be fought, a description first of the almighty and infinite
God, and then of the omnipotent and invincible Christ. The
purpose may have been to give the reader confidence in the out-
come before he finds himself in the midst of the struggle.
Always we must remember those early Christians for whom
the book was primarily written. It is easy to understand the
spiritual meaning of these chapters for those who were called
upon to defend the cause of Christ with their lives. For all
martyrs and witnesses and workers for Christ in every age,
these chapters contain this imperishable hope that behind the
battle, and watching over its issues, there is the eternal God,
our refuge; there is the captain of our salvation who has gone
forth conquering and to conquer.

In this appeal the author is true to the central teaching of

69

70 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION"

the Bible and to the central fact of Christian experience. The
ultimate basis of the Social Hope for the Christian lies in the
conviction of a living God and of a living and energizing
Christ. These are the two indispensable convictions under-
lying a permanent Christian optimism. When these convic-
tions exist, one can do full justice, as does the author of the
Book of Revelation, to the fact of evil, without losing any of
one's social confidence. There lies the ultimate and permanent
meaning of these chapters.

To choose an instance from history to illustrate this point:
what was the source of the extraordinary spiritual inspiration
which led to the founding of the American Commonwealth, and
laid the basis of our modern political and religious liberties?
We find that it lay in a complete and overmastering con-
viction of the reality of God as the ruler of men and -of their
moral destiny. When we ask what manner of men these were
and what the guiding truth and impulse was that impelled
them to their great acts of faith and fortitude, we find the
truth of God lying at the root and center of their lives, as
the all-controlling motive, guiding alike their lives and the
destiny of the cause of which they were the instruments. That
creed is perhaps the most sublime that any man can hold;
that creed will take men anywhere and prepare them for any-
thing; that creed is essential to human happiness and to human
progress. The world has rarely produced greater men than
have been found under its influence. It was the creed of the
Calvinists and of our Puritan forefathers. Merely to mention
the fact that Calvinism gave to the world such men as William
the Silent, Admiral Coligny, John Knox of Scotland, Oliver
Cromwell of England, Jonathan Edwards of America, ought
to make us realize that the world owes to it a debt which can
never be repaid. "We may repudiate, and we do, the extreme
Calvinistic dogmas; but let us frankly acknowledge what was
great and noble in it. It was an iron creed, but it made iron
men; so that the world never knew braver or stronger men
than Calvinism bred. This humbling creed which laid a man

THE ETEENAL BACKGROUND 71

prostrate before his Maker made holy men like John
Bunyan and Richard Baxter and the men of the May-
flower." It takes a great creed to make a great man, and
there is no creed that is greater, whatever its minor defects,
than that which puts God on his throne and acknowledges
his sovereign sway over men. This ennobling creed that made
men feel that they were the instruments and messengers of
Almighty God made mighty men who would neither bend nor
bow; who feared none but God, and who with splendid cour-
age crashed against tyranny and wrong. It was of men nour-
ished by such a creed that J. A. Froude (not a prejudiced
witness) wrote: "They attracted to themselves every man in
Europe that hated a lie. They were crushed down, but they
rose again. They were splintered and torn, but no power
could melt or break them. They abhorred, as no body of
men ever more abhorred, all conscious mendacity, all impurity,
all moral wrong of every kind so far as they could recognize
it." It was men such as these who broke the back of tyranny
in the state, and who preserved personal and vital religion
so that whatever exists at this moment in the English-speaking
race of accountability to God and of conscious fear of wrong,
was branded into men's hearts by the Calvinists. The secret
of their pertinacity, their courage, their indomitable will, was
their belief in a sovereign God and in themselves as the agents
of his will. It is of such stuff that heroes are made, and pro-
phets; it is such men who "subdue kingdoms, obtain promises,
and who turn to flight the armies of the aliens." Precisely
this is the place which the fourth chapter of Revelation occu-
pies in the religious experience of all men everywhere. It is
the central teaching of the Bible that God is in the midst.
It was Robert Louis Stevenson who said that a man can do
and can hear anything if he really believes that God is on
his side. That is just what this chapter says : "If God is for
us, who can be against us?"

A similar purpose is intended and achieved by chapter 5
in the picture which it gives us of a present, living Christ.

72 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

No one can read and understand the Book of Revelation
without gaining a vivid and permanent conception of Christ
not merely as an historical character, as One who lived in the
past and accomplished a ministry which ended with his death,
but also of a living, energizing Spirit who accompanies the
on-going life of the world, oversees its struggles, is in the
midst of the eternal battle of righteousness, opposes Himself
to the enemies of his cause, protects his people, and wins
through them and with them and for them, the final victory.
This is one of the chief values of the book, one of its greatest
spiritual contributions to the Christian. It is a service which
is desperately needed. One of the great lacks in the actual
religious experience of many in our day is precisely this
persuasion of a living Christ. The chaplains in the army
reported an almost total absence of it in the experience of the
soldiers in both British and American armies.1 For many
people to-day Christ is "a far-off historical character, the
great Ideal . . . but He has nothing to do with the daily
round." Precisely the opposite of this, of course, is the teach-
ing of the New Testament. For the early disciples, Christ
had everything to do with daily life. The living and accom-
panying Christ stands out on every page of the Acts and
the Epistles. But nowhere is such a vivid exhibition of this
truth given as in the Book of Revelation. The teaching of
this book must revive and make real this integral and essen-
tial element of a true Christian experience. The apprehension
of this truth is the ground of the Social Hope; gives the clue
and meaning to a true social interpretation of history; and
fortifies the individual soul in its struggle for righteousness.
There is no substitute for this persuasion of the living Christ
as the secret of the perpetual inspiration of the human soul.
In personal living, this conception stands central. In the
midst of the monotonies of existence, or of great cosmic disas-
ters, or of the decay of moral impulses, or the inveterate

1 See Atlantic Monthly Sept. 1919, "The Church and the Civilian
Young Man"; also, The Army and Religion (Macmillan), Chap-
ter III.

THE ETEBNAL BACKGKOUND 73

evils of the world, who does not know his moments of moral
vertigo, days when all his spiritual forces are threatened
with panic? On such days the voice of the omnipotent and
ever-present Jesus, traveling in the glory of his strength,
comes to us in our fear and trembling, saying in a voice that
penetrates to the inmost recesses of our being and rallies all
our waning strength.

Peace, it is I. . . . In this world ye shall have tribulation;
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

In our social struggle for a better world, as well as in per-
sonal living, this conception of a living Christ is indispensable.
In the promise of Christ to his disciples, "Lo, I am with you
even to the end of the world," the word "end" means not
termination but consummation, perfection, completion. That
is the Social Hope of the Book of Revelation. It gives us
the picture of Christ working with men until the ultimate
perfection and completion of the social order. That also is
the Christian interpretation of history. When we survey the
centuries that have elapsed since that promise was given, and
since the last book of the Bible was written and sealed, what
do we see? In the breaking up of the pagan world, the grad-
ual disappearance of the old social order, the dawning of a
new day, the story of human liberties, the rebirth of nations,
the on-march of the Gospel, we see the coming of Christ down
through the ages, the advance of the Son of Man traveling
in the glory of his strength.

Behind the moral customs of society He stands, back of its
laws, habits and practices, wielding upon them his irresistible
power. It is impossible to read the record of social progress
without the recognition of his shaping strength, his moral will.
in forcing the civilized world out of its injustice and inhu-
manity. His sublime spirit is in the record; it is in the his-
tory of Christendom; it is in the present struggle; it is the
hope of society. When did we need this inspiration more
than we need it now? It is one of the glories of the Book

74 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

of Revelation that it produces this indelible impression of a
Christ who is even now bending men to the doing of his will
and putting all things under his feet.

That the Social Hope is never complete without the con-
ception lying behind these two chapters of the Book of Reve-
lation is proved by a careful observation of the social con-
science that operates without this inspiration. There is, as
we all know, a social conscience in the world that is devoid of
the Christian inspiration. It may well be asked if the so-
cial movements of our time can afford to dispense with this
inspiration, much less to despise it. Chiefly it is the Christian
Idea which generates the spiritual sentiment, and above all
the spiritual assurance and confident hope which must go
hand in hand with culture and humanitarian passion and de-
votion, if human life is to be made sane and sweet and strong.
Let any one contrast, for example, the abounding social hope
of Christian missionaries from the very dawn of the Christian
era, with the mood of many noble men and women "who with
the insight of prophets and the self-sacrificing devotion of
martyrs are battling for righteousness outside of the Christian
cultus and bereft of the historic Christian inspiration. When
Robert Morison was sailing for China, the captain of the ves-
sel asked him if he expected to be able to convert the millions
of Chinese to Christianity. To which he replied, "No, I do
not, but I believe that God is able to do just that !" In ethical
and social workers who lack that persuasion, we sometimes
detect an undertone of sadness, a note of wistful longing, a
strain of "close-lipped patience, near-daughter to despair,"
which indicates the spiritual tragedy of many a noble life.
What would it not mean if these souls could be thrilled,
touched, quickened by the message of this book which would
replace their noble melancholy with the persuasion that the
living God is in the midst of his people so that their labor
can never be in vain in the Lord; and that the omnipotent
Christ is putting all things under his feet?

THE ETERNAL BACKGROUND 75

Chapter 4: 1. After this heaven was opened, as it were,
and the same voice which had spoken to me in trumpet-
tones before, summoned me to see the things that were
about to happen. 2. At once I was inspired and behold,
a throne in heaven, 3. and he that sat on it was like a
rainbow set in jewels. 4. Surrounding the throne were
seated twenty-four dignitaries crowned like princes and
clothed like priests. 5. And thunders and voices issued
from the throne, and seven torches typified the seven di-
vine spirits. 6. And the sky stretched before the throne
like the transparent sea; and within and about the throne
were four living creatures which could see in every direc-
tion. 7. They resembled a lion, an ox, a man, and an
eagle, 8. but all had wings and all uttered praise to God
without ceasing. 9. And at the sound of praise, 10. the
twenty-four kingly persons worshipped God, renouncing their
glory, 11. and giving all honour to him.

Notes v. 1 The voice, i.e. the voice of Christ, as in 1:10.
This Revelation is from Christ Himself. Come up hither
"The vision of the reality and strength of spiritual things
alone" can give us the perspective which will enable us to
understand and to endure, v. 2 "The sovereign power of the
world was not on the earth but in heaven. This thought is
the nerve of the whole chapter, and of the whole book. . . .
The center of the universe, the foundation of its order and
life, is God." There is always a throne above Domitian's.
v. 3 The reader can trace all of this description of the glory of
God to its Old Testament sources. It is based on Ezekiel,
chapters 1 and 10, and Isaiah, chapter 6. For heaven as the
dwelling-place of God, see Ex. 24:10; I Kings 22:19. A
special significance is not to be sought in each particular
element or color. It is the general symbolism which needs
to be borne in mind. The question of the relation of the
precious stones mentioned in the Bible to our modern min-
erals is obscure. (See Hastings' Bible Dictionary on precious
stones.) v. 4 Four and twenty elders, i. e., angelic beings with
the attributes of kings. They are doubtless taken from He-
brew tradition (Isa. 24:23), but their ultimate origin is prob-
ably to be sought in Babylonian mythology where twenty-
four star gods were supposed to form a circle around the polar

76 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

star. v. 5 The seven spirits have already been mentioned in
1:4 (cf. also 1:12, 16 and 8:2). Old Testament antecedents
are to be found in Ezek. 9:2, but especially in Zech. 4:2, 10,
where it is evident that the lights which are the eyes of the
Lord were originally stars. By the figure is meant the all-
discerning spirit of God. v. 6 The pavement of the great
throne-room of God is here described, and the likeness in
color of sea and sky suggested the comparison. (See Gen.
1:7.) v. 7 The four living beings (beasts) go back to Ezek.
1:5, 18. Originally they were doubtless wind-clouds (Ezek.
1:4, 5) which are the cherubim (Ezek. 9:3, 10:20) which bear
the chariot of God. It is possible that this conception goes
back still further to the mythological idea that four beings
supported the four corners of heaven. It is plain that the
author draws freely both from ancient mythology and from
the Old Testament in giving poetic and symbolic expression
to his faith that God is before all and above all and behind
all; and that He who has made the world will redeem it and
that nothing can thwart his purpose and his will, which the
future will reveal. The reader will note how freely hymn
writers have drawn upon this chapter. Bishop Heber's hymn,
"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty" is a transcript of
this description of God. v. 11 The purpose of creation is to
satisfy its Creator (cf. Gen. 1:31). This conception is the
ground of an imperishable Social Hope.

Chapter 5: 1. At God's right hand, I saw a book-roll
written on both sides and sealed with seven seals. 2. An
angel called with a loud voice for one who was worthy
to break the seals and open the book, 3. but none could
be found. 4. And I mourned over this, 5. but was reas-
sured by one of the kingly priests, who told me that the
Messiah-Christ had been able to open the book. 6. And
I looked and beheld there was one bearing like a lamb
the marks of sacrifice, yet having all power and knowledge
to do God's will in all the earth. 7. When He came and
took the book, 8, 9. the living creatures and the kingly
priests all worshipped Him because He was the Eedeemer
of all mankind, 10. and had saved and exalted his people.
11. The angels also, an innumerable company, 12. joined

THE ETERNAL BACKGROUND 77

in the hymn of praise. 13. And the whole earth swelled
the chorus, 14. and the living creatures chanted the Amen,
and the kingly priests fell down and worshipped Him.

Notes v. 1 The idea of a book of destiny is taken directly
from Ezek. 2 :9, 10, Isa. 29 :11, 12, and Dan. 12 :4. w. 3, 4
Without the leadership of Christ and without the teaching
of his spirit who alone leads us into all truth, God's scheme
and plan for the world could never be translated into history.
The events of the on-marching world are thus the Gesta
Christi, since Christ alone enables men to make actual what
otherwise would remain God's hidden purposes. Men have al-
ways been palsied by the doubt of whether they understood
those purposes. That doubt is removed and assurance is at-
tained through the breaking of the seals by Christ alone. The
opening of the book by Christ signifies that present events are
his fulfillment of God's purposes, and that thus they lead
in the end to the salvation of the people of God and the
servants of Christ. Human history is thus interpreted as the
gradual unfolding of the will and purpose of God, every
event, however contradictory it may seem to be, in the hand
and keeping of Christ. Such a view of history alone pro-
vides a sure basis for social optimism, v. 6 Note that this
picture of Christ is made up of wholly different materials
from those in 1 : 12-20. Here the idea is more distinctively
Christian. By the seven horns is meant perfect power (12:3,
13:1, 17:3, 12), by the seven eyes (Zech. 4:10) perfect knowl-
edge. Through his vicarious sacrifice Christ has gained his
place at the right hand of God above all angels and other
powers (cf. Heb. 2:9, 10; Phil. 2:5-11). The conception of
Christ as Lamb is peculiar to Revelation and to the Fourth
Gospel. Thence it has become one of the most familiar figures
in Christian art and hymnology. "The Lamb is in the midst of
the throne. The work of redemption and the means taken
to accomplish it are ever before the mind of God." Christ
by his "sacrificial death has unlocked the purposes of God
for mankind, and the broad issue is that eternal love and

78 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

righteousness will prevail. . . . The final result is never in
doubt among the heavenly host. . . . Whatever comes, eternal
righteousness and sacrificial love are on the throne." All who
share in this conviction can face without quiver of dread what-
ever struggles and sufferings they may be called upon to en-
dure. The Cross is the final symbol of the Social Hope.

CHAPTER VII

JUDGMENT AND SALVATION

Revelation, Chapters 6 and 7

THE writer's preparations for ushering in his series of
judgments on the world and the existing social order
are now complete. The occasion of the prophecy, its trust-
worthiness and authority have been set forth in the first
chapter. The second and third chapters have fulfilled their
purpose in addressing both comfort and admonition to the
churches of Asia, which are typical of all Christian churches
then and now. In chapters 4 and 5 we have great visions
of God and of Christ, of the Creator and the Redeemer who
are behind and within the great world-movement which the
prophet is about to describe. The drama of judgment can
now begin.

This drama, however, does not unfold of itself. Here is no
impersonal theory of history. These events do not happen of
themselves. The author has used not only a high degree of
literary skill, but has employed a social conscience which
is fundamentally religious and Christian in portraying these
events as transpiring only under the hand and only by the
will and foreknowledge of Christ. He alone has the power
to set in motion the series of events that shall judge the
world, punish evil, overthrow Satan, vindicate righteousness
and save his people. It is in the light of such a revelation
that we of to-day should watch and study the events of his-
tory. Never, perhaps, since the day when the Book of Reve-
lation was written have men had such a grandiose spectacle
unfolded before their eyes of world-movements taking place

79

80 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

under the shaping hand of Christ. Sometimes this world
moves so leisurely that it seems as if for centuries it stood
still. Sometimes it rolls on at such a giddy pace that in a
moment of time it seems to describe the orbit of centuries.
Such is the age in which we are living. How much it would
mean for us if we could view the great revolutionary events
of the present as the expression in history of the shaping
mind of Christ, who is overturning age-long evils, visiting
judgment on an an ti- Christian world order, and ushering in
his kingdom! All over the world great revolutions in society
and industry are taking place. By an assertion of social con-
science such as no modern people has seen, the organized
liquor traffic has been destroyed by one blow in the greatest
industrial nation of the world. Verily, it is a time of judg-
ment, when the crowns of mediaeval monarchs have been roll-
ing in bewildering succession in the dust, and some of the
evils that seemed permanently entrenched in society have been
cast aside.

All of the great drama of the past few years, which we
have witnessed, is akin to that upon which the writer of the
Book of Revelation looks with prophetic eyes. He foresees
for his day what we have seen in our own. He describes the
judgment which is to be visited upon a cruel, conscienceless
tyranny which threatens the life of the church and dares to
challenge the spirit of the omnipotent Christ. The sixth chap-
ter is the core of the book, in the sense that it is the first
of the three descriptions which the author gives of the disas-
ters which are to overtake impious, godless, imperial Rome.
With the opening of the successive seals of the Book of Des-
tiny, the prophet beholds Four Horsemen which typify four
different judgments which are to be visited upon Rome. The
symbolism of the chapter is plain even to the casual reader.
To one who studies its origins, it becomes as clear as day-
light. The impressive eloquence of this description of woe
and desolation cannot be heightened by any extended com-
mentary. It is sufficient to refer to a recent use of the chap-

JUDGMENT AND SALVATION 81

ter which illustrates its marvelous adaptation to post-war
conditions. One of the most popular of the books produced
by the war has been that by Vicente Blasco Ibafiez entitled,
"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." In this book we
have a great effort to portray in human speech the terrible
realism of the War. Its chapters convey a never-to-be-for-
gotten impression of the horrors of the German invasion.
The author can find no imagery more adequate to his purpose
than that of the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation.
He, too, sees four mythical horsemen riding over the fields of
Flanders and of France, the symbols of Invasion, Civil War,
Famine, and Death. He has given us in modern speech an
amplification in terms of modern Europe of what the inspired
author of the Book of Revelation first saw in the days of
ancient Rome. He has pictured the judgment of Christ upon
an impious world-order of our day, as the Book of Rovelation
set forth the judgment about to be visited upon imperial
Rome one hundred years after the birth of Jesus Christ.
Ibafiez has caught the original inspiration of Revelation and
has reproduced it in modern language for the use of this
present generation.

It must once more be pointed out that the inspiration of
this chapter, rightly viewed, consists not only in its literary
style and lofty eloquence. It is seen when we contrast the
apparent strength of Rome and of the Christian Idea when
this chapter was written. While the weaknesses which ulti-
mately resulted in Rome's overthrow doubtless already existed
when this Apocalypse was written, they were not generally rec-
ognized, nor immediately visible. Rome still stood like a
Colossus, unmoved and apparently immovable. On the other
hand, the Christian faith was represented by a few scattered
companies of Christians, recruited for the most part from the
least educated and influential portions of the population — an
apparently negligible element in the great Roman world. Yet
it is the Idea enshrined within those Christian communities,
according to this chapter, which is to destroy the Roman Em-

82 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF BEVELATION

pire. More wonderful still, that prophecy was fulfilled within
the following three centuries.

Chapter 6: 1. When Christ opened the first of the seven
seals, there was a noise like thunder. This was the voice
of one of the living beings who told me to come and see
what should happen. 2. First, I saw a white horse and
on it a bowman representing a royal nation that went
forth to conquer. 3,4. Next I saw the second seal opened
and I heard the living creature summon a red horse and
his rider who typifies civil war that destroys peace from
the earth. 5,6. The third seal was broken and I heard the
voice call forth a black horse whose rider held seals in his
hand representing famine. 7,8. When the fourth seal was
opened and the fourth voice had spoken, there appeared
a gray horse and its rider. This was death, which was
to consume a fourth of the world. 9,10. When the fifth seal
was opened, I saw under the altar the souls of the martyrs
clothed in white who cried for vengeance on their enemies.
11. They were told to keep quiet a little time longer until
the number of martyrs should be complete. 12,14. At the
breaking of the sixth seal there followed a terrible earth-
quake that shook heaven and earth and 15,16. caused all
men, the mightiest as well as the lowliest, to flee in terror
from the wrath of the Lamb. 17. This was the Great Day
of the Lord.

Notes w. 2ff For the Old Testament original of the four
horsemen, the student will refer to Zech. 6 :l-8. They person-
ify the four powers of evil which throughout the Old Testa-
ment prophets are the agents of God for punishing the world
for its sin (see Jer. 15:2-3, 24:10, 29:17-18, 42:17, 44:13;
Ezek. 5:12, 17, 14:21, 33:25). God will use these same in-
struments for the destruction of Rome. Precisely as the Old
Testament prophets made use of political happenings in fore-
telling the destruction of Nineveh and Babylon, the author of
the Apocalypse used the signs of the times in prophesying
the downfall of Rome, the restlessness of subject peoples,
social disorders, lack of food, and contemporary convulsions
of nature. This fact, however, does not lessen for either Old
Testament writers nor for this author the reach of a faith
which could confidently declare that these omens presaged the
downfall of an apparently invincible foe. v. 2 The white

JUDGMENT AND SALVATION 83

horseman does not typify Christ. His entrance is reserved
for chapter 19. It is not conceivable that Christ should be
presented both as opening the seals and also as appearing in
response to the summons of an archangel. As indicated by
the bow, this rider symbolizes the Parthians, one of the most
feared of Rome's enemies, who fought with the bow, not used
as a rule by the Romans. White, also, is the sacred color
of the Persians, for whom the Parthians stood in later times.
The Red Horseman naturally signifies War, specifically the
slaughter of war and perhaps civil war ("they should kill one
another"), v. 5 The Black Horseman is Famine, a scourge
of the Eastern world then as now. Black fitly represents the
ensuing distress. The price named for wheat is enormous,
perhaps twelve times the usual rate, which was a denarius
(18 cents), for twelve measures (quarts) of wheat; and bar-
ley cost half as much. v. 6 The oil and the wine hurt thou
not. These words have been interpreted to mean that, by a
kind of irony of fate, the luxuries of oil and wine are to be
left untouched, while the necessities of corn and wheat are
lacking. The words oil and wine, however, are regularly used
in the Old Testament for the products of the earth (Deut.
7:13; Neh. 5:11; Joel 2:19). It seems more probable to sup-
pose that the author means that this first visitation of famine
is limited in scope and preparatory to the more dreadful
calamities to follow (chapter 8:lff). The Fourth Horseman
is Death. Only a portion of the population is to be destroyed
at this time by the four instrumentalities mentioned (cf. Lev.
26:22-26; Mark 13:7-9). v. 9 The fifth judgment is in a
class by itself. It was an ancient apocalyptical idea that the
day of judgment could be hastened by the prayers of the
saints (Rev. 8:3, 4) and cries of the martyrs (Enoch 47;
Luke 18:7, 8). In the Old Testament uncovered blood is
supposed to cry for vengeance. In the blood was the soul
(Lev. 17:11). Hence when blood flowed, the slain cry for
vengeance. While this cry of the martyrs may seem to fall
below the prayer of St. Stephen (Acts 7:60), it must be un-

84 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

derstood as a passionate appeal of suffering righteousness
for the vindication of Christ's cause for which the martyrs
stand. (See Whittier, "The Christian Slave," Ps. 79:5-10;
Heb. 12:24; cf. II Esdras 4:35). For the familiar notion
that a predestined number of the elect must be fulfilled before
the end, compare the phrase in the Book of Common Prayer:
"We pray thee shortly to accomplish the number of thine
elect and to hasten thy kingdom." v. 12 The sixth judgment
is an earthquake, frequent in the East then as now. This de-
scription is almost a reproduction of Matt. 24:29, 30. (See
Isa. 2:19; Hos. 10:8; Luke 23:20.) v. 17 The Great Day of
the Lord is a familiar apocalyptical idea from the time of
Zephaniah (1:14, 15) on. It was a fundamental idea in the
teaching of our Lord and the hope of the Christian church.
It was the standing designation of the judgment day.

These great forces of judgment are still in Christ's hand.
Once more they have been let loose on the earth; but they are
all subject to Christ. Although apparently destructive, they
are for the accomplishment of his will. Even the wrath of
man and of nature has fulfilled the Divine purpose. Physical
and social earthquakes over and over again in history have
ushered in a new and a better order. We must look upon
them as the author of the Apocalypse did as "under the con-
trol of Him who has the welfare of mankind at heart." They
are summoned forth by the Saviour who opens the seals. Ours
is the faith that even the most feared of human events are
obedient to his work. This is the ground of our Social Hope.
Thus is depicted for us in the most impressive way the eternal
truth that through the continuous processes of nature and
man, evil shall be destroyed. We see the picture of the pour-
ing of the wrath of God upon all iniquity and sin.

Nowhere does the literary and artistic structure of the
Book of Revelation appear more clearly than in the chapter
to which we have now arrived. Instead of having the
seventh seal broken at once, and bringing the first series

JUDGMENT AND SALVATION 85

of judgments to a close, the author here interrupts this
story of retribution by a passage in which is depicted in
immortal language the safety of God's people. The literary
effect of this postponement of the final scene in the drama of
judgment is to heighten the expectation of the reader. Its
moral effect upon those tried and persecuted Christians for
whose comfort and assurance this book was first written was
to create the conviction that nothing in nature or human
events, no "principality or power," could separate them from
the love of God. Whatever happened, their salvation was
sure. Before even more dreadful scenes of judgment were re-
vealed, this beautiful word of comfort is given to them by
the prophet. The spiritual meaning of this chapter for all
Christians and for all time is that the souls of the righteous
are in the hand of God; that He preserveth all that put their
trust in Him. This chapter, one of the sweetest and most fa-
miliar in the New Testament, acquires fresh meaning and elo-
quence from an understanding of its position in the Book
of Revelation, and the message which it brought to those for
whom it was first written.

The chapter falls into two parts. The first section com-
prises verses 1-8, and the second section the rest of the chap-
ter. This second section is by far the more familiar of the
two, and upon it the Christian heart dwells with gratitude.
The first section, usually overlooked, is seen, however, upon
examination, to contain a spiritual truth of great significance
and of immense comfort.

The angels of God stay for a moment the tempest of wrath,
and another angel commands them to prevent the destruction
of the earth until the servants of God shall have received the
sign and pledge of their salvation. There follows what may
well be termed a family roll-call. The tribes of Israel are
named in turn and in each tribe all are "present or accounted
for." The perfect number is returned for each one. So un-
derstood, what at first sight appears like a monotonous and
wearisome repetition of names, becomes one of the most

86 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

eloquent passages in this eloquent Book. When God comes
to "count up his jewels/' to number the redeemed, He begins,
that is, with his own family, the family with which the Bible
began. The history of that family is Bible history. The name
of that family was "the children of Israel." That family was
destined to bring into the world the knowledge of the one,
true and only God. Out of that family was to spring He who
was destined to be the Saviour of men. And now at the end
of the Bible, which has told of this great family history, and
of what it had done for the world, the names shall be called,
the names of the children of Israel. It was long, long ago
that we first heard that list of names. It was away back in
the book of Genesis. Jacob had come into Egypt, "and all
his seed brought he with him into Egypt"; and then for the
first time we listened to the names of the members of that
family with whom we were to become so familiar and whose
fortunes we were to follow for so many hundreds of years:
twelve children, twelve sons, and their names follow, — Reu-
ben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, so the roll goes on, and the last
name of all was Dan. And now we have come to the end of
the Bible, and once more that list of names is going to be
called. Before the number of the ten thousand times ten thou-
sand, before the multitude which no man can number, first
of all there will come this family roll-call; and we feel that
this is right, that this is the way it should be. Judah's name
comes first, since out of that family sprang the Lamb of
Judah before whose throne this great multitude is gathered.
Each answers to his name as it is called. Each separate fam-
ily is complete; each family has grown to number twelve
thousand. The full number is twelve times the twelve thou-
sand of each.

And I heard the number of them which were sealed, a
hundred and forty and four thousand sealed out of every
tribe of the children of Israel.

Read the passage so; remember that it is the last time that
these names are to be called; think of the great history of

JUDGMENT AND SALVATION 87

that family, the long journey they had traveled, their vicissi-
tudes, struggles and labors; remember that it is in heaven, in
God's own home, that this roll-call is heard, and how beautiful
and tender is the reading!

Our impression of the eternal worth and comfort of this
family roll-call is deepened if we let our minds rest upon
certain salient features of the history of the family of God.
First, it was a scattered family. "Israel is as a scattered
sheep" (Jer. 50:17) for "Thou hast scattered us among the
heathen" (Ps. 44:11). That family had never really lived to-
gether from the day that Joseph went down into Egypt. Of
the twelve tribes, ten were afterwards spoken of as "lost."
But before the Bible closes we have this beautiful reunion
picture. Second, the history of this family was very eventful.
Theirs was a long, troubled and tragic career. Every strange
and terrible event that could befall a family happened to the
family of God. They were spared no imaginable affliction.
It was of that home that the prophet wrote.

O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted
(Isa. 54: 11).

Its grief was even symbolized by

Kachael weeping for her children and refusing to be
comforted (Jer. 31: 15).

And yet, before the Bible closes, we find the word of promise
kept,

. . . Thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not
fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near thee (Isa.
54:14).

Third, the family of God had known terrible family estrange-
ments. These brothers had hated each other with a ferocity
which it seemed nothing could heal. From the day that Jo-
seph was sold into Egypt, through the period of the Judges
when Benjamin was terribly punished by his brothers, to
the division of the kingdoms which resulted in permanent fam-

88 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

ily alienation, this family presents a record of uninterrupted
discord which has no parallel in history. How wonderful, it
appears, therefore, before the Bible ends, to find even these
wounds healed, and the members reunited in the heavenly
home. And how prophetic of the redemption of other fam-
ilies appears this final roll-call, for none can have been more
scattered, more afflicted, more divided. How our faith is thus
increased in the final reunion of the families of God!

There is one more significant fact to be noted in this roll-
call. There is one name that is missing. We do not find the
name of Dan. We know that this cannot be by inadvertence.
There must be some deep moral meaning in such an omission
as this. And there is. Dan presents the most tragic career
of all the sons of Jacob. There seems to have been some-
thing wrong with him from the first. When the dying father
came to breathe his prophetic prayer over his sons, he spoke
a strange word for Dan:

He shall be a serpent in the way; an adder in the path.
(Gen. 49:17.)

To the Hebrew a serpent was such a sinister figure that this
could mean only a sinister end. When they came to Canaan,
Dan did a strange thing: he made for the sea. The Hebrews
had such an antipathy for the sea that that could only mean
that Dan cut himself off from the real genius of the family
life. When the roll is called in the Chronicles, Dan is not
there, and tradition tells us that it was from Dan that the
Anti-Chrisl sprang, who was to deny and make war against
the Lord's Anointed. Dan had permanently left the Lord his
God. He had chosen, by himself, to set up his will against
that of the Almighty. However melancholy the omission of
his name may seem to be, let us remember that it does infinite
justice to the tragic nature of moral realities. It suggests the
solemn lesson that by one's own moral choice one can exclude
oneself from participation in the life of God. While there
is nothing in this passage to preclude the possibility of a
future re-entrance into that fellowship, it does contain a cor-

JUDGMENT AND SALVATION 89

rective to the easy-going assumption that just because one is
of the family of God, one's future salvation is assured. It
does teach that conscious surrender to and acceptance of the
will of God is the condition of being among the number of
the redeemed.

The second section (7:9-17) of this chapter is among the
most familiar in the book. It is frequently read when we
come to lay away our dead. It calls for no extended com-
ment. It speaks home to the heart with a music all its own.
Let it be noted, however, that the Bible is the only book,
and Christianity is the only faith, which has, after taking
care of its own, a promise for the great unnumbered multi-
tude. From this point of view the words "After this" are
among the most inspired in the Bible. They point to the im-
mense catholicity of that faith, limited to no chosen people,
to no particular race, but including within its reach all the
children of men. This passage points to the universality of
that company of the redeemed that is coterminous with the
reach of the Holy Spirit of God. It rebukes all particular-
ism, and provincialism which seeks to limit the number of
God's saints by a "strictness which He will not own." It
tells us that the "love of God is broader than the measure of
man's mind" and that "the heart of the Eternal is most won-
derfully kind." And it tells us further that little as the finite
mind can recall and remember every last, hidden saint of God,
He remembers them all and calls each by his name and num-
bers them among the multitude of his elect.

Chapter 7, 1-2-3. Then I saw divine Beings appear who
restrained the forces of destruction, and another arch-
angel commanded that the earth should no longer be hurt
until all the servants of God and followers of Christ should
receive the mark that should assure their safety. 4. Then
I heard the roll called of the tribes of Israel, the children
of God, to whom the covenant of God was made. 5-8. As
each name was called, the full and perfect number of that
tribe was found present and received on his forehead the
seal of salvation. 9-12. After that I saw a multitude of
redeemed before the throne of God so great that no finite

90 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

mind could possibly number it. These came from all na-
tions and peoples on the earth, and they stood before God
and Christ and worshipped them. 13,14. When I asked one
of the angels who they were, he told me that they were
faithful souls, who preferred persecution and death to dis-
loyalty, 15,16. and therefore are now given the victory
over every form of human privation and suffering and are
in the protecting care of God. 17. In the fellowship of
Christ they forget all sorrow and are in perfect felicity and
peace.

Notes v. 1 For the "four winds," cf. Jer. 49:36; Dan. 7:2;
Zech. 6:5. v. 3 By the "seal" is meant a mark of authenti-
cation (Rom. 4:11) or of security (Rev. 5:1, 20:3). Both
ideas are included here in contrast to the mark of the beast
(13:16ff) (cf. also Gal. 6:17). For origins of the idea of
a brief staying of the forces of destruction, see Ezek. 9:4ff;
Baruch 6:4ff. It is probable that our author had in mind
some apocalyptical source in which a calamity threatening
Israel is to be stayed until God's chosen ones should be made
safe. v. 4 The conception of a "true Israel's" forming the
center or nucleus of the elect of God is a familiar Bible con-
ception (cf. Ezek. 9, 47:13-48; 35; Rom. 3:1, 2; Rom. 9:1-5).

For passages relating to the history of Dan, see Gen.
49:17; Jer. 8:16. (See also Irenseus V. 30, 2.) Other ex-
planations for the omission of the name are (1) that it
is due to a copyist's error, and (2) that the tribe had
long been extinct. The name is found in I. Chron. 2:2, but
is omitted in I. Chron. 7. It occurs again in Ezek. 48:32.
The idea already suggested for the omission of the
name is accepted by many recent scholars. To fill the va-
cancy caused by the omission, the name of Joseph is added.
By the 144,000 the author doubtless means the whole body
of the Church, Jewish and Gentile alike; and by the multi-
tude, every servant of God wherever found. The second
section (v. 9ff) is of course a vision of the final consumma-
tion, introduced thus early to encourage those who are threat-
ened with death. No great number of martyrs had as yet
fallen victims to the Roman persecutions. This is the first

JUDGMENT AND SALVATION 91

picture of the Christian heaven (as distinguished from the
Jewish idea of a new earth) to be found in the New Testa-
ment. The sources for the description of the blessedness of
the redeemed are familiar to Bible readers. (Isa. 49:10; Ps.
121:6; Isa. 25:8.) The word throne is used seven times in
this short vision, conveying the idea of the power of God,
and the perfect obedience to Him of all who find in his service
their perfect freedom.

CHAPTER VIII

THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPETS

Revelation, Chapters 8 and 9

THE Heavenly Interlude being over, the reader is ready
to have the seventh and last seal broken. He wonders
what judgment can be reserved for the climax to those which
have preceded. As a matter of fact, he discovers that the
breaking of this seal results in the beginning of a new series
of judgments. Since the book described in chapter 5 con-
tained the whole drama of destiny, the seventh seal could
not end it, but must itself lead to a new chapter in that
total description of the judgment of evil and of the triumph
of righteousness. In the same way the blowing of the seventh
trumpet opens out into the emptying of the seven bowls of
wrath (chapter 16).

The blowing of the seven trumpets, then, introduces a new
series of judgments which are described in the eighth and
ninth chapters. In these two chapters we have illustrations
of the most bizarre imagery to be found in the Book of Reve-
lation. The light of the sun and moon is darkened; there
are earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; we read of swarms
of locusts with men's faces and hair of women and crowns
like gold, and of horses with stings in their tails, emitting fire
and brimstone. If we can understand these chapters, we
shall have no difficulty with any part of the book.

First of all, it is necessary to understand what the author
is trying to describe. His object is to show that God is
ruling his world; that He is neither dead nor asleep, and
that his suffering servants have nothing to fear at the hands

92

THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPETS 93

of the pagan empire, since that empire itself is opposed by
these destructive agents in the hand of God. God's people
who have his seal in their foreheads shall escape, but all
who do not repent shall be destroyed. There is an interesting
similarity here to the story of the escape of the Israelites
from Egypt, of the sign on the door-posts and of the plagues
upon the Egyptians. Much in the description of the plagues
is the same: frogs, lice, flies, beasts, hail, boils, locusts, dark-
ness and death. The idea is the same. Another and a worse
oppression has overtaken the people of God, and He uses the
same agencies of destruction as before to compass the down-
fall of his enemies.

Again, it is necessary to remember that this series of judg-
ments is an advance upon that of the seals. The first series
told of the more ordinary judgments, the beginnings of woes
which are preparatory to the final consummation. But with
the sounding of the trumpets we have portrayed the awful
plagues preceding the final conflict and all other events issuing
in the final overthrow of evil and the ushering in of the King-
dom of God. We should naturally, therefore, expect a more
highly colored apocalyptical imagery in these chapters which
describe the vast world-movements leading up to the end.

Once more, it needs to be borne in mind that any lan-
guage seeking to describe such supernatural events, must
itself be super-natural. If one is describing the ordinary
processes of history, one can use ordinary language. But if
one is seeking to express the extraordinary intervention of
God in behalf of his cause and his people, through nature and
man, then one must use extraordinary language. All apocalyp-
tical language is extraordinary. It takes on necessarily pic-
turesque and grandiose forms, since it attempts to portray
the resources of the infinite God in his struggle against sin.
When once we understand the poetic and pictorial nature of
this language, we will not look at it with literalistic eyes.
We will not press it too closely for exact interpretation and
understanding. Of course it has never happened and prob-

94 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

ably will not happen during the lifetime of the race that a
third of the earth will be burned up, that locusts with men's
faces will appear, that horsemen will run about with poisoned
tails. But neither did Julia Ward Howe see Christ trampling
out the vintage of the grapes of his wrath. This is poetic
imagery, the general meaning of which is that the judgments
of God in some form and in some way will fall on evil-doers
in general, and in particular the Roman Empire, which is
persecuting Christians.

In the next place, we must remember that in a general way
it is true that these judgments, described in language that
seems so fantastic, are based upon certain natural and social
phenomena which had come under the eye and within the
knowledge of the prophet who uses this language. It will
not do to look too closely for actual plagues and woes of
which these are the symbol. On the other hand, contemporary
events doubtless did suggest some of the material. This has
already been indicated in our discussion of the judgments in
chapter 6. When civil war was referred to (6:4), Rome was
on the brink of it; when the Parthian bowmen were alluded
to (6:2), those dreaded foes of the Romans were an actual
menace to the peace of the Roman Empire. Similarly, when
in this chapter earthquakes, eclipses, and volcanic eruptions
are referred to, and all kinds of natural horrors, it is quite
probable that the prophet has in mind some catastrophe of
recent occurrence, such as the eruption of Vesuvius, which in
the first century had destroyed Pompeii. Indeed, it is not
easy as one reads these chapters to avoid the conviction that
John himself saw from the island of Patmos the lurid flames
of some volcanic eruption, and had heard from fugitives
of how fierce beasts had destroyed the vegetation, how sulphur-
ous vapors had killed the fish in the sea, how waters were
reddened as by blood, and how islands rose and sank again.
Such phenomena are frequently used in poetic and prophetical
ways in the Old Testament. What more natural means could
be imagined for depicting the judgment upon Rome? The

THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPETS 95

same facts in natural history lie at the basis of his descrip-
tion of the invasion of locusts. Ramsay has described how
he was the eye-witness of such a plague. The locusts ad-
vanced in thick mass-forcnation, in almost serried ranks with
well-defined lines. At their head there went leaders, direct-
ing the mass behind them. They would settle on fields that
were fair and green, but when, as by signal, they rose again,
not one blade of green or living thing would be left behind
them. The earth was as barren as if it had been burned
off by fire. Such plagues were of common knowledge in those
districts of Asia Minor. If one understands these features
of Eastern geography, these descriptions do not seem half
as mysterious as they may have appeared at first.

Finally, we must render account, as always, of the sources
from which the author drew. As has been said, one reason
why we find chapters like these strange, is because we our-
selves are strangers to those portions of the Old Testament
which furnished the material for them. Nearly every figure
thus far used in Revelation is taken directly from some pas-
sage in the Old Testament. This chapter is no exception.
For the fiery hail of 8 :7, we recall Ex. 9 :23 ; for the volcanic
eruption of 8:8, Jer. 51:25; for the poisoned springs (8:10)
Ex. 7:20-21; for the darkness of the heavens (8:12) Ex.
10:21-23, "a darkness which may be felt"; for the locusts
(9:3ff) Ex. 10:12-15, and Joel 2:4-11: "the appearance of
them is as the appearance of horses, whose teeth are the
teeth of a lion." Finally, the horsemen (9:16ff) are doubtless
suggested by the passage in Zech. 6, to which reference has
already been made (see chap. 6) and also by a passage in
Habakkuk (1:8) in which the prophet speaks of the Chal-
deans whose horses are swifter than the leopards and more
fierce than the enemy wolves, "and their horsemen shall spread
themselves and come from far; and they shall fly as the eagle
that hasteth to eat." Is it not clear that if all these passages
were familiar to us as we read these two chapters of Reve-
lation, those chapters would have seemed familiar reading

96 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

also? If it is true in general that a knowledge of the Old
Testament is necessary to an understanding of the New, that
statement is particularly and convincingly true of the Book
of Revelation.

The reader will note with respect to this second series of
judgments that just as in the first series we had four specific
plagues under the figures of the Four Horsemen, but that
the fifth and sixth were different in character (the prayers
of the saints and a general judgment), so, in chapters 8 and
9 the first four trumpets usher in definite catastrophes, but
the fifth and sixth precede more elaborate visions.

Chapter 8: 1. "When Christ broke the seventh seal there
followed an ominous silence. 2. Then the seven angelic
beings who stand before God were given seven trumpets, 3.
and an archangel appeared with a censer of incense which
he laid upon the altar with the prayers of the saints. 4.
This was a witness that these prayers would become an
instrument of God in the execution of his authority and
power. 5. For when the angel took the fire from the altar
made by the mingling of the incense and prayers and cast
it upon the earth, there followed manifestations of power
in thunders and earthquakes and lightnings.

6. Then the seven angels in succession blew their trumpets.
7. At the blowing of the first trumpet, there came a fiery
hailstorm that consumed a third of the vegetation of the
earth. 8, 9. At the second, a fiery mass so large that it
seemed like a mountain fell into the sea and destroyed a
third of the fish and of commerce. 10, 11. At the sound of
the third, a comet blazing like a torch fell from the sky
upon the rivers of the earth and poisoned their waters so
that a multitude of people perished. 12. When the fourth
trumpet sounded, an eclipse so terrible took place that a
third of sun, moon and stars were stricken with blackness
so that the world was in darkness for a third of the day
and night. 13. Before the next trumpet blast, an eagle
flying in mid-heaven proclaims doom upon men because of
the woes which are to follow.

9: 1. Then the fifth angel blew, and an angel-star fell
on th-3 earth and an abyss was opened to which this angel
had the key. 2. Out of this pit came smoke as from a
huge cauldron which darkened the atmosphere. 3. And out
of the smoke came swarms of locusts which had the stinging
power of scorpions; 4. and this power was to be used not
upon vegetation but upon men who were not sealed with

THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPETS 97

the sign of God. 5, 6. And their sting when they struck was
not to prove fatal at once but was to cause an agony that
would be indefinitely prolonged until the men longed in
vain for death. 7. In form these locusts resembled huge
war-horses, but they had royal crowns on their heads which
were like those of human beings, with a face like a man,
8. hair like a woman, and teeth like a lion. 9. They were
clad in armor of iron, and when they flew there was the
sound of racing chariots and of cavalry rushing to battle.
10. Their poisonous striking-power was in their tails, and
those whom they struck were tortured for a long time. 11.
And these demon-powers had a king over them, even the
angel who had opened the abyss to release them, whose name
in Hebrew is AbadVlon, but in Greek Apollyon. 12. Here
endeth the first woe. But the worst are to follow.

13. Then the sixth angel sounded his trumpet; 14. and a
voice from the very presence of God commanded him to
unleash the four angelic beings that were bound at the
river Euphrates, 15. who had been kept ready for that
very hour of that day and month and year to kill the third
of men. 16. And the number of the troops of their cavalry
was two hundred millions (I heard the exact number).
17, 18. And this is how the horses and their riders looked in
my vision. Their armor was not of iron and steel, but of
fire and brimstone. And out of the mouths of the horses
which had heads like lions there came blasts of fire and
smoke as from a volcano, 19. for they had power in their
mouths as well as in their tails, which had heads like ser-
pents that struck and hurt men. 20, 21. Terrible as these
plagues were, however, the men who were not destroyed by
them did not repent and did not forsake worshipping de-
mons and senseless idols and did not give up murders and
superstitious practices and all kinds of immorality.

Notes 8:1 The profound silence gives striking dramatic ef-
fect to what follows. Half an hour would seem to denote
a long pause, v. 2 The seven angels are referred to as if well-
known; but they do not appear in the earlier visions, unless
they are the same as the seven spirits of 1 :4, 4 :5, 5 :6. They
are doubtless the seven archangels familiar to Jewish apoca-
lypses (cf. Tobit 12:15; Enoch 81:5, 90:21ff; Luke 1:19).
w. 3-5 There is in this passage no suggestion of the media-
tion of an angel between the prayers of the saints and God.
Such an idea is found in Tobit 12:12, 15, etc., but not in the
New Testament. The idea is rather that the incense of the

98 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

angel re-enforces the prayers and accompanies them and au-
thenticates their efficacy. For the altar of incense, cf. Ex.
30:lff; Lev 4:7. The idea of prayers as agents of Divine
Power, already occurring in 6:9,10, is a dramatic descrip-
tion of the social value of intercessory prayer. We do not
often enough think of prayer as a form of social work (cf.
Col. 4:12). v. 5 cf. Ezek. 10:2, from which the idea is doubt-
less taken. The same idea in other forms of an immediate
Divine answer to prayer is found in Matt. 3:16, 17; John
12 :28, 29. The prominence given in these visions to the mani-
festation of the anger of God is a characteristic of all apoca-
lypses, which belong to times of persecution and denote the
power of God to overthrow evil when the power of God's
servants appears inadequate to the task. We need always
this faith as a part of our working religious apparatus.
The remarkable spiritual eloquence of the description of these
terrors will not escape the reader, v. 7 (cf. Ex. 9:23ff and
Ps. 18:3). The addition of blood here may be suggested by
Ex. 7:17ff and Joel 2:30. v. 11 The idea of a corruption
of water is taken from Ex. 7:20, 21, and the name wormwood
from Jer. 9:15 (cf. also Jer. 23:15; Lam. 3:15, 19; Deut.
29:18; Prov. 5:4). v. 12 For the plague of darkness, cf. Ex.
10:21ff; Isa. 13:10; Joel 2:31; Amos 8:9. v. 13 The better
reading of the Revised Version substitutes "eagle" for "angel."
The eagle is used as messenger in the Jewish apocalypses.
Chapter 9:1-11 The vision of the locusts is taken from Ex*
10:12flf and Joel, chapters 1 and 2, but the locusts are here
transformed into supernatural creatures, whose characteristics
are in part taken from fantastic exaggeration of natural lo-
custs and in part from mythological tradition. The author
treats freely and with apocalyptical imagination the materials
which he uses as a basis for his description. 9:1 The idea
that stars had a conscious personality is common in Jewish
writings (cf. Judges 5:20; Job 38:7). Cf. also Enoch 21:6,
"these are the number of the stars of heaven which have
transgressed the commandment of the Lord." (See Jude

THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPETS 99

v. 13.) The star here is certainly not Satan, who nowhere
in Revelation appears as an agent of God. "Bottomless pit"
is used in a general sense of the underworld in Rom. 10:7;
Ps. 71:20, and also in a specific sense of the prison of evil
spirits in Lk. 8:31, and elsewhere in Revelation (11:7;
20:1, 3). It is represented as locked, (cf. Rev. 1:18.) V. 2
(cf. Ex. 19:18; Joel 2:10). w. 5, 6 Five months (see v. 10).
Visitations of locusts in the East occur during the five dry
months. (For v. 6, cf. Job 3:21.) v. 7 There is an Arab
saying that the locust has a head like a horse, a breast like
a lion, feet like a camel, a body like a serpent, and hair like
a maiden (probably suggested by the antennae of the locust).
v. 11 For an opposite idea see Prov. 30 :27. Abaddon means
destruction or the place of destruction. Sheol or Hades is
personified in Job 26:6, Prov. 15:11. (cf. Rev. 6:8.) The
word Abaddon occurs only here, and the author translates it
into Greek (Apollyon meaning Destroyer), v. 14ff (cf. Ezek.
38:14n\) From Ezekiel on, an invasion of a fierce host be-
comes a standing apocalyptical event, (cf. Isa. 5:26ffi; Jer.
l:14ff, 4:13, 6:22f, 47:3, 50:42; Joel 3:9ff; Zech. 14:2.) To
this idea the author adds his fabulous and supernatural de-
scriptions of this aerial cavalry. The location of this host
at the river Euphrates suggests the Parthians. v. 15 It seems
probable that the author had taken this idea of four angels
from a familiar tradition in which four destructive powers
(angels, winds) come forth from the four quarters of the
earth, (cf. Zech 6:1-8; Dan. 7:2). To this is added the de-
rived notion that these agents of destruction are the leaders
of the Parthians, located at the Euphrates. The idea of a
fixed time is central in all apocalypses, v. 18 (cf. Job 41 :19ff.)
Fire-breathing monsters are figures in all mythology, w.
20, 21 It is a familiar and tragic fact, abundantly proved in
history, that men are not long sobered by even the most ter-
rible calamities. The resistance of men's moral nature to the
lessons of great catastrophes constitutes one of the most baf-
fling problems in moral and religious psychology. Compare

100 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

Eugene Sue's terrible description in "The Wandering Jew"
of the levity of Paris during the cholera scourge. We are
told that when the plague was at its height in London in 1665,
riot and vice were rampart. "Neither repented they of their
murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor
of their thefts."

CHAPTER IX

THE SECOND INTERLUDE

Revelation, Chapters 10 and 11:1-14

STUDENTS of the Book of Revelation who hold that it
is not a unity, and that interpolated sections are to be
found in it which must be removed and the material rear-
ranged in order to discover its original form, find food for
their argument in these two chapters. Surely here, they say,
we find an unaccountable interruption in the argument. Just
as we are about to hear the seventh trumpet blow which
will usher in the climax of the judgment, the process is halted
so that the prophet may receive anew his commission. But
how could he have received that commission more solemnly
than in the opening chapter? Why should these chapters be
inserted here The habit of rearranging the material in Bible
books to make it more logical is itself open to grave objections.
It will not do to classify inspiration with topical exactitude.
The moods of the soul do not obey the categories of the
logician. Emotion does not proceed in orderly progression.
What are looked upon as interruptions and interpolations
are often the breaking through of pent-up feeling, the
resurgence of spiritual ideas that wreck the program while
they reveal the soul.

Without doubt the author of the Book of Revelation was
overtaken by such a mood when he reached the point to which
we have now arrived. From the point of view of dramatic
surprise and literary effect, nothing could have served his
purpose so well. He is about to advance to the last series
of judgments which itself will lead up to the final collision

101

102 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

between the Empire and the church, Satan and Christ, the
evil and the good, which in turn will usher in the day of
judgment and the day of salvation. Here the prophet pauses
to gather strength for this final effort of the soul to depict
these great and culminating events. He recoils, as it were,
upon himself. The tides of the spirit which have spent them-
selves in the awe-inspiring description of the sounding of
the trumpets recede into the depths of the soul before they
rise once more to even greater heights. The prophet must
receive a fresh commission before he can proceed. And if
the prophet needs this fresh assurance, so do his readers.
Precisely as chapter 7 was intended to assure them of their
safety before the trumpets were sounded, so chapter 11 is
written to convince them that nothing can violate the inner
shrine of God's Temple, nothing can destroy his witnesses
until their testimony is complete.

"In this use of preludes should be noted the splendid al-
ternation of light with shadow. Before every vision of gloom
and terror, the writer introduces a glimpse of the radiant
glory that lies beyond. . . . The assurance of hope, the prom-
ise of victory ... is offered anew with every new approach
of trial. . . . Nothing could more clearly show that the su-
preme purpose of the book was to cheer and sustain through
the awful troubles that were coming on the world." ' Just
so, in every time of trial, of delayed hope, of unfulfilled ex-
pectation, these chapters will do their work in heightening
the Social Hope of all Christians. It is this which gives the
Book of Revelation its unique and imperishable place in the
literature of the soul. These chapters instead of being an
interruption, belong just where they are, according to any
true spiritual understanding alike of the book and of the needs
of the human heart. Just as in the case of the previous in-
terlude, this postponement of the final catharsis heightens
the imagination and expectancy of the reader.

At the opening of chapter 10 the author tells us that he

iBeckwith, p. 245.

THE SECOND INTERLUDE 103T

was about to proceed with his revelation of the last things
and to interpret the voices of thunder which he heard when
he was told to stop. He was not yet competent to utter these
thing-s. They would be revealed only when the last angel
sounded. In the meantime he must himself "inwardly di-
gest" these things before being competent to utter them.
It is impossible to say just what were the contents of the lit-
tle book, beyond that it contained the prophecies that were
to follow. This chapter expresses in symbolic form the con-
sciousness of the writer that his work here takes a fresh
start which carries it to its consummation. Viewed in this
light, the chapter which stands almost at the exact center of
the book serves, as it were, as a "powerful clamp" * by means
of which its different parts are held together. It looks back
to chapter 1 where the prophet receives his first commission,
and forward to all the coming mysteries of God.

After the prophet himself has thus been inwardly prepared
to proceed, his hearers receive the assurance which they need.
This is expressed in two short, eloquent visions, the spiritual
signification of which constitutes an imperishable ground for
the Social Hope, making the eleventh chapter one of the
most eloquent in the entire book. The first of these visions
occupies only the first and second verses. The prophet is told
to measure the Temple, the altar, and them that worship there;
but not to measure the outer court. There is, then, an outer
court, and there is an inner shrine. Now there is no promise
made about the outer court: "leave it without, measure it
not." But the inner shrine, that he can measure; and the
implication is that he will find the measures perfect: it will
lie foursquare. The outer court may be destroyed, but the
inner shrine is indestructible.

The original Jewish author of this inspired and comfort-
able parable doubtless wrote it with reference to the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem in the year A.D. 70. At that terrible time
when under the armies of the Emperor Titus, the city and

1 See Scott, Revelation, p. 205.

104 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

the Temple were laid low and devastated, he wrote to en-
courage the Jews to believe that though the nations, the Gen-
tiles, the heathen, might ravage the outer and visible court of
the Temple, they could never destroy the inner shrine of holi-
ness, the altar and them that worship therein.

Those scenes were long past when the Christian author
wrote this book of Revelation. Yet he preserves this little
Jewish bit of inspiration for his own ends. It is not the
Jewish city that is now threatened, but the early Christian
community: the little handful of Christians who compose the
seven churches of Asia, the groups of witnessing Christians
at Ephesus, and Pergamum, and Thyatira. So when he uses
the word temple, he is not thinking of the temple at Jerusa-
lem, but he is thinking of these little churches, and the edi-
fice of the Christian faith, and the separate lives of the Chris-
tian disciples. We remember how in the early chapters of
the book the author has spoken of them as pillars in the Tem-
ple. It is in that sense that he uses the word. In those days
of persecution and of martyrdom and of death, what he says
is this: The outer court may be ravaged by our oppressors;
it may be cast out ; our assemblies may be broken up ; our lead-
ers may be put to death; our services may be suppressed;
our bodies may be destroyed. These have been given over
unto the nations and for forty-two months — definite time, that
is — they will tread these holy things under foot. But measure
the inner shrine, measure the altar, and you will find that
it has been preserved inviolable and intact. The body of
the Christian confessor may be destroyed, but not his soul.
The church building may be ruined, but not its faith. The
church community may be destroyed, but not its hope. These
are the inner shrine. These are inviolable and indestructible.
Fathom if you can the bottomless comfort which such an
assurance brought to the persecuted Christians for whom
this book was written.

Those days of the Book of Revelation lie far behind us.
Nero is no longer on his throne; the hand that was raised

THE SECOND INTERLUDE 105

to destroy the Christian church lies mouldering in the dust.
The church of Christ goes marching on down through the
ages. Consider how immortal is this message of the indestruct-
ible inner shrine which remains in the midst of the devasta-
tion by the nations of the outer court of the temple of God!
What wonderful confirmations of the truth of this parable
have been given us through the ages of history even down
to our own time!

1. Let the temple stand for the soul of a nation. What
does the parable in these two verses tell us? It tells us that
the outer court may be ravaged by the oppressors; they can
turn it into a charnel-house and a shambles; they can pro-
fane it and trample it under foot for a set time. There re-
mains the inner shrine; there remains the soul of the people.
Measure it and you will find it preserved. Nothing has de-
stroyed it. Nothing can destroy it. It remains untouched
and inviolable. The soul of Belgium, France, Armenia — that
is the inner shrine. The soil of Belgium, that is the outer
court. For forty-two months and a little over that outer
court was profaned by every injury and insult that could be
heaped upon it. It was trodden under swine's feet and
made a heap of mud and indescribable refuse. Its cities
were given over to the nations and they visited them with
every manner of injury that the cunning hate and ingenious
deviltry of man could devise. Woods and orchards were
turned into charred acres of land. Meadows and gardens
look as if they had been devastated by a blast of Sahara.
But the soul of Belgium! Did anything touch it? Measure
it. It lies foursquare. The soul of France! was it destroyed?
Measure it. Does it fail to meet the test? "And there was
given to me a reed like a rod."

2. Apply this to the Christian faith, to the Christian teach-
ing, to the Christian church. Here also there is the inner
shrine and the outer court. Remember this, and you will be
given comfort and hope in many a dark and dreary day.
That outer court began to be invaded long ago. The heathen

106 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

had begun to desecrate the outer precincts. They were pull-
ing down the walls and bulwarks of faith. Wise men had
begun to substitute evolution for God; they substituted sci-
ence for faith; they put up progress in the place of provi-
dence. They attacked the supernatural and called it a myth;
they attacked the Scriptures and called it all a pious tradi-
tion; they attacked the authenticity of the Gospels and re-
duced them, as they thought, to ruins. There did not seem
to be much left of the outer courts. The nations were tram-
pling under feet what the saints had thought to be the most
indestructible creeds and unassailable propositions. Many
had taken alarm and felt as if the edifice of faith were doomed
to destruction. Then came the World War in 1914; then
came the spectacle of 300,000,000 Christians trying to ex-
terminate each other. The hounds of hell were let loose by
those who had confessed themselves to be followers of the
meek and lowly Jesus. And the scorners laughed aloud at
the bitter mockery and the hideous grinning skull of what
looked like colossal Christian hypocrisy, and they poured con-
tempt upon the Christian teachings and the Christian churches
that had failed to prevent so infernal a tragedy. Yet all the
while there was the inner shrine; there was the inviolable
essence of the Christian faith; there was the soul of Jesus.
Has anything touched the soul of Jesus? We have read of a
church building in France which was made a charnel-house
by German shells. Walls were battered in; ruins of plaster
and glass lay all over the floor; a huge beam rested over the
altar. But in the midst of it there was the crucifix, unharmed,
untouched. And the cross of Christ has remained untouched
alike by the debates of the wise men, by the wisdom of the
scientists, and by the hand of Hun and of vandals. "And
there was a reed given me like a rod." The worshipping soul
of man, and the eternal soul of Christ — these are the inner
shrine.

3. Or here is the church. How men have criticized it!
Baiting the church is the easiest and commonest sport of the

THE SECOND INTEELUDE 107

day. Every one has to have a fling at it. Every one has to
throw some insulting word at it. Every one must find fault
with it. How worn-out are its creeds ; how barren its services ;
how wooden its ministers; how impotent its witnesses; how
insignificant and negligible its influence! Its outer court has
been trampled all over and criss-crossed by profane and in-
sulting mockery. Many have told us that the World War
has completed its ruin. Never again can it pretend to be
what it was. Its pretensions have been unveiled; its hypocri-
sies have been exposed. Other organizations have taken its
place. The Red Cross has usurped its function. But do not
forget that there is still the inner shrine where the wor-
shipper meets his Lord:

"There is a spot where spirits blend,

- Where friend holds fellowship with friend ;

Though sundered far, by faith they meet

About the common mercy-seat."

Nothing has touched that; nothing can touch that. Think
of the soldier who wrote his mother to remember him at Com-
munion on Easter Day, and then went out to die. "And
there was given to me a rod." The inner shrine has remained
inviolable.

4. Inviolable also are the souls of men. The outer court
is the body. Disease and violence have destroyed it. What
unspeakable things have been done to men's bodies! They
have been torn, mangled, starved, shot, blown to atoms,
strangled. But the soul! Bring out the measuring-rod. "He
that dwelleth in the secret place, ... no harm can come
nigh that dwelling." The soul is inviolable.

"Souls of the Righteous in the hand of God,
Nor hurt, nor torment cometh them anigh;
0 happy, happy immortality,
Souls of the Righteous in the hand of God.

108 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

"Souls of the Righteous in the hand of God,
To eyes of men unwise, they seem to die;
They are at peace, 0 fairest liberty,
Souls of the Righteous in the hand of God.

"On earth as children, chastened by Love's rod,
As gold in furnace tried, so now on high,
They shine like stars, a golden galaxy,
Souls of the righteous in the hand of God."

Such is the immortal Social Hope of the vision of the
inner shrine.

A similar truth is contained in the second vision of the
indestructible witnesses. Three great characters in the Old
Testament were believed never to have died, Enoch (Gen.
5:24), Moses (Deut. 34:5), and Elijah (II Kings 2:11).
Hence arose the idea that they could return at any time
(Deut. 18:18; Zech. 4:12; Mai. 4:5, 6; Matt. 17:3). Accord-
ing to early Christian apocalypses, they were to reappear
for the purpose of opposing and conquering the Anti-Christ,
and to deliver Christians from his wiles. So in this pas-
sage, the persecuted Christians are encouraged by the example
of these typical witnesses of the Jewish tradition (the num-
ber is reduced from three to two) who in miraculous manner
are preserved from destruction during the time of their
ministry. After their witness has been given, they are to
be destroyed and lie unburied while the "men of the nations"
rub their hands and congratulate themselves that they are
dead. Then God will bring them to life to the terror of their
enemies, before whose eyes they will ascend to heaven.

The plain lesson to be conveyed to the persecuted Chris-
tians to whom the Book of Revelation was written, is this:
Rome may threaten you with destruction, but you can never
die until your testimony is in. Then you may indeed be
killed. But, while your enemies may have power over your
bodies, they can never destroy your souls. You, yourselves,

THE SECOND INTEKLUDE 109

are in reality indestructible, and at the resurrection day your
enemies will be confounded at seeing you rise to life im-
mortal. For a beautiful elaboration of this idea the reader
is referred to the apocryphal book, the Wisdom of Solomon,
chapter 5 :l-5.

This teaching of the indestructibility of the witnesses of
God has also immense social value for our own time and for
all time. Let a man witness for God, and his witness cannot
be destroyed. You may destroy his arguments, but you can-
not destroy him. You may flout his reasoning, but you can-
not do away with the man himself. That life is an un-
answerable argument. The prophets and the apostles were
killed; the truth which they enshrined and illustrated has lived
victoriously. John Brown's body may lie mouldering in the
dust, but not the idea for which he stood. On John Wesley's
tomb in the Abbey stand the words: "God buries his work-
men, but carries on his work." The words of Arthur J.
Clough are eternally true: "Though we perish, truth is so."
George Eliot may not have spoken the whole truth about
immortality in her "Choir Invisible," but she gave unforget-
able expression to a part of it. It is possible to "make un-
dying music in the world."

Akin to the social value of this idea is the thought that
each man is immortal till his work is done. Until they have
finished their testimony, God's witnesses shall live. When-
ever, that is, a true servant of God dies, we may have the
assurance that the peculiar contribution which it was his
moral destiny to make, has been made. Jesus gave con-
firmation to this idea in his oft-repeated assertion that his
enemies could not take Him because his "hour was not yet
come." When at last they did crucify Him, He could say,
"It is finished." There is no promise here for any except his
witnesses. But for them and for those who love them, it is
an assurance of immense worth. It may not always be easy
or even possible to see in the case of many who die when they
are young, what that contribution is, or why, had they lived,

110 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

it would not have been completed or perfected. But it is
our faith to hold that no life can be touched until its witness
is complete. Such consolation belongs to all those whose dear
dead lie by the thousands on the battlefields of Flanders and
of France.

Contrast also the ultimate salvation and glory of those who
have borne their witness with the dismay of those who have
tried to put them to death. "And their enemies beheld them."
Think of what that means. Think of the multitudes all
through Christian history who have died insignificant, lonely
deaths, unnoticed, forgotten, neglected. Even their names
have not come down to us. Think of the soldiers who died
overseas by the thousands, whose identification tags were
lost, their bodies thrown indiscriminately together in a con-
fused, indistinguishable mass; not even a grave for each, to
say nothing of anything to mark such a grave. And then
I read:

I heard a great voice from Heaven, saying, Come up
hither; and they went up to Heaven on a cloud and their
enemies beheld them, and gave glory to the God of Heaven.

This is the spiritual hope of each faithful life. No matter
how lonely or neglected it may seem to be, it will have its
resurrection day, it will be gathered up into glory, and the
foes it so bravely faced, who may seem to have overcome it,
will know its triumph and give glory to the God of Heaven.

Chapter 10:1. Then I was on the earth again and saw
an angel come down from heaven. His garment was a cloud,
on his head was a rainbow, his face shone as the sun, and
his feet as columns of fire. 2. In his hand was a small open
scroll. In size he was so immense that he stood over land
and sea, 3. and his voice was like the roar of a lion. When
he spoke, it thundered seven times. 4. I was about to
write what these thunder-voices said when I was forbidden
to do so. 5. And the great angel solemnly lifted his hand
to heaven and took oath that there should be no more
delay, 7. but that when the seventh angel sounded his
trumpet, the secret purposes of God would be fulfilled. 8.
And the voice from heaven commanded me to eat the scroll

THE SECOND INTEELUDE 111

which the great angel held in his hand. 9, 11. I did so,
and found, as I had been told, that it was at first sweet to
receive the very words of God, but that the more they
were pondered, the more bitter was the mission to pro-
nounce the woes and denunciations which they contained
in the ears of many peoples.

Chapter 11:1, 2. And in a vision I was told to measure
the sanctuary and to count the worshippers that were in
it, and to see how safe and complete they were whatever
might happen to the outer confines of the Temple. 3-6.
And I was told that power of life would be given to God's
witnesses who in sombre raiment would prophesy for a time
and walk unharmed through all perils and perform all mira-
cles until their ministry was fulfilled. 7, 8. Then they will
be killed by the satanic power that will make war against
them, 9. and for a time they will lie unburied 10. while their
enemies mock them and congratulate one another. 11, 12.
Then God will give them a glorious resurrection to the con-
sternation of their enemies, 13. and an earthquake will
cause widespread destruction. In terror, the rest will give
glory to God. 14. The second series of judgments is now
over. The third is about to begin.

Notes v. 1 For the description of the strong angel, compare
that of Christ (1:15-16) and see also Ps. 104:3; Ezek. 1:28;
Matt. 17:2. No special significance is to be sought in these
attributes. The general idea of heavenly glory is conveyed
by them. v. 2 The scroll. The words little and open (Ezek.
2 :10) to distinguish it from the great roll of chapter 5, which
was closed, v. 3 For the figure of the lion, cf. Amos 3:8;
Hos. 11 :10. For the seven thunders, see Ps. 29 :3-9. Some
popular conception of thunder unknown to us underlies this
obscure reference.1 The number seven is doubtless used to
express completion. Their utterance contains the final judg-
ments which the author cannot describe (Dan. 12:4-9) until he
has been recommissioned. It is useless to press too closely the
relation to each other of the message of the angel, the thunders
and the little book. One melts into the other and the general
purpose is plain, w. 5-6 For this form of oath, see Dan.
12:7; Gen. 14:22; Deut. 32:40. The word time signifies delay.
(See Matt. 24:48; Heb. 10:37.) v. 7 The word mystery is

1Beckwith, pp. 574, 577-8.

112 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

commonly used in the New Testament to describe the purpose
of God, hidden for a time but eventually to be made manifest,
of salvation in Christ, (cf. Rom. 16:25; I Cor. 2:7.) In
Eph. 3 :4ff it is used of the incorporation of the Gentiles into
the people of God. Here it is used inclusively of the con-
summation of the kingdom, v. 8ff For the Old Testament
original of the idea of eating a message, cf. Ezek. 2:8-3:3. (cf.
Jer. 15:16, 20:9; Job. 23:12.) The symbolism of eating is
the entire appropriation and personal assimilation of the
word of God. The idea that the taste of the book was bitter
as well as sweet is a characteristic addition of the author
of Revelation, and gives warning of the woes which are to
come. Also it is spiritually very suggestive.1 "The actual
living taste of a Divine communication is sweet," but when
we come to realize how the refusal of that invitation to men
means their misery, the utterance of it is indeed bitter; it is
sweet to receive the message of God's love, but to translate it
in terms of every-day living involves bitter struggle.

Chapter 11:1-13. w. 1, 2 The original tradition upon
which this prophecy is based is unknown to us. The idea of
measuring is, of course, familiar from Ezek. chapters 40-43.
Doubtless there was a Jewish apocalypse, written in view of
some threatened conquest of Jerusalem (perhaps before 70
A.D.), and predicting, in accordance with the teaching of
the prophets, that a remnant would be saved. This is used by
our author not (as some commentators hold) to predict the
ultimate repentance of Israel (Rom. chapters 9-11), but to
assert by analogy the preservation of the Christian community.
The word altar here stands for the altar of burnt-offering.
(See Ezek. 43:13ff.) The idea of measuring the worshippers
presents no difficulty since the measurement implies preserva-
tion, (cf. II Kings 18:22; Isa. 36:7; II Chron. 32:12.) For
the outer court, cf. Ezek. 10:5. Forty-two months, or 1260
days, three and a half years, is the conventional apocalyptic
period of the domination of evil before the end (cf. Dan. 7:25,

1 See Deane, p. 114.

THE SECOND INTEELUDE 113

12:7 where "time" and "year" are synonymous). In all pas-
sages both in the Old Testament and in the New where these
figures are used, this symbolic meaning is to be given them.
Other symbolic numbers are four, seven, twelve, forty, seventy,
familiar to all Bible readers, w. 3-13 The original tradition
underlying this prophecy has already been suggested. (The
reader will refer to Gen. 5:24; Deut. 18:15, 18, 34:6; II
Kings 2:11; Zech. 4:2ff; Mai. 4:5-6; Mark 6:15, 8:28,
9:11-13; Matt. 11:14; John 1:21, 25, 7:40.) No names are
here given to the witnesses. Our author is therefore not
thinking of Moses or Elijah specifically, but of all who per-
form the functions of martyr-witnesses to the truth (cf. Matt.
17:10-13; Luke 1:17), and thus of the Christian martyrs to
whom the book is addressed, and so of all Christian witness-
bearers. Doubtless, as in the case of vv. 1, 2, an earlier
apocalypse underlies this passage in which the Old Testament
witnesses are to expose the errors of Anti-Christ and to
deliver men from his power. Why Enoch seems to be omitted
here we do not know unless by limiting the witnesses to Moses
and Elijah as Law and Prophet, the complete testimony of
the true faith is depicted, v. 3 For the time indication here,
see above, v. 4 Standing before the Lord, the true position
of every prophet of God. w. 5, 6 (cf. II Kings 1 :10; I Kings
17:1, 18:1; Luke 4:25; Jas. 5:17; Ex. 7:20). v 7 The Beast.
The use of the word "beast" in the Book of Revelation may
be summarized as follows: (1) In chapters 4 and 5, the cor-
rect reading is "living creatures" as in the Revised Version,
and the word there has no connection with its meaning here
and in later portions of the book. (2) All through ancient
mythologies and Hebrew folklore, there ran the tradition of a
monster, opposing himself to the ruler of the universe, and
symbolizing in this opposition the eternal conflict between
good and evil. (3) The word is used in this sense in Dan. 7,
and is the prototype of our author's use of the word, (4) Our
author uses the word in three distinct senses (a) of Satan as
the personification of evil, as in chapter 13; (b) of Anti-

114 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

Christ as the embodiment of Satanic opposition in human
form to Christianity. This figure of Anti-Christ is contempo-
rary with the earliest years of the Christian era, owes its
origin to Jewish demonology, and appears often in New Testa-
ment writings (cf. I John 2:18, II John 7; II Thess. 2:3). It
is in the sense of Anti-Christ that the word is used in this
chapter of Revelation, (c) Of the Roman emperor as the
agent of Satan, as in chapters 13 and 17. v. 8 The denial
of burial was felt by the ancients to be the final insult (cf. I
Kings 21:24; Jer. 8:lff, 14:16). The term "great city" which
here certainly means Jerusalem, elsewhere in Revelation means
Rome. Jerusalem is frequently referred to as Sodom, but
nowhere else as Egypt, vv. 11, 12 (Cf. Ezek. 37:10; II Kings
13:21,2:11.)

w

CHAPTER X

THE DRAGON AND THE BEAST

Bevelation, Chapters 11:15-19; 12, 13

I. The Dragon

E have now arrived at one of the passages in the Book
of Revelation most difficult to understand, whether in
its relation to the rest of the book or with respect to its own
contents. Only a very careful mastering of the main outlines
of the message, and a close examination of the way the mind
of the author works, will enable the reader to understand either
its place or its meaning. In the main, we find that the con-
tents of the Book of Revelation fall into three sections. Of
these the first, the study of which we have now completed,
contains the introduction, and the chief judgments of God
upon a wicked world (chapters 1-11) ; the second, to which
we have now come, contains a description of the sufferings of
the church, in the grip of the powers of evil (chapters 12-19) ;
and the third which lies beyond describes the final victory of
Christ and his followers (chapters 20-22).

We might have been led to expect that with the sounding
of the seventh trumpet, after the second interlude, the final
judgment would fall upon the world, and the trial of Chris-
tians would end and their victory would be assured. But
evil is not so soon to be vanquished, and victory is not so
easily to be won. Perhaps nothing in the whole book is so
wonderful as the full justice which is done to the inveterate
and apparently impregnable and invincible power of evil. It
is true that Revelation is a book of magnificent optimism, and

115

13 6 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

that it ends in no stalemate, in no peace without victory, in
no truce. The victory which it ultimately describes is absolute,
not negotiated as between equals, but dictated by the Supreme
power of righteousness whose undisputed and unique suprem-
acy is acknowledged by all. But that victory is all the more
impressive because it goes to the roots; because the struggle
is carried to the very last strongholds of evil; because it does
not end until the very principle and source of evil has been
discovered and vanquished. It is this thoroughgoing treat-
ment of the problem of evil in its relation to the Christian
Idea which makes this book the final word of Social Hope.
We love the book all the more because of its delayed promise
and postponed day of victory. If it offered us anything less
than the promise of the final overthrow of evil itself, it would
not be what it is. Temporary victories are always possible
in the sphere of history. Preliminary battles are being won
every day on the field of time. But the Book of Revelation
does not describe these. The Social Hope which it offers is
not based on them. Rather it takes us by the hand and leads
us through seas of blood and ages of soul-struggle up to
the very capital of evil and has us witness its capitulation.
What we see before this book ends, is not the surrender of the
sword of some temporary power. We behold the surrender of
Satan himself, who hands his sword over for all time to the all-
conquering Christ. This is the ultimate truth which forms
the foundation of a Social Hope which is eternal.

Let the reader once grasp the intention of the author of
Revelation to pass beyond the particular and temporary op-
position of the Roman Empire to the Christian cultus of the
first century and to carry the war, as it were, into the very
heart of the enemy's country, and the position and meaning
of the following chapters, which every student of the book
has found difficult and many have accounted hopeless, begins
to be clear.

Introducing these chapters, we have first the hymn of praise
with which the eleventh chapter closes. Like the Greek chorus

THE DEAGON AND THE BEAST 117

in a tragedy of Sophocles or Euripides, these anthems break
forth more than once in the Book of Revelations (chapters
5:13, 14, 19:1-7). As the seventh angel sounds, there breaks
forth first of all this great hymn of thanksgiving, and the
doors of the Heavenly Temple swing open for a moment, and
the ark of safety is revealed, and there are manifestations in
heaven of the power of God.

The sounding of the trumpet, however, does not result in
immediate, final judgment. Instead there follows chapter 12,
admittedly one of the most obscure passages. We note the
strange beginning. The author does not even say that he
saw this vision. Alone of all the visions in the book it begins
impersonally: "And there was seen." Again we have nothing
in the Old Testament that will help us, nor anywhere in
Scripture, nor even in history. Efforts to find analogies in
Israel's escape from Egypt or in contemporary historical
events have proved futile. But there are two points that may
be held firm. First, the author is here describing the original
and ultimate struggle between good and evil; and second, he
is using for his source materials which are foreign to the
Bible, and a tradition which is wholly unfamiliar to us. We
do not know where he found these strange stories of the
dragon and the woman and the child, nor do we know just
how he meant them to be interpreted. It is very probable
that this was not wholly clear to his own mind. Imagination,
and particularly apocalyptical imagination, moves in the realm
of general ideas which gather in confused mass in the mind of
the writer, and are portrayed with a vague and perhaps
despairing effort at verbal description, and are left to be their
own interpreters of the germinal truth which agitates the soul
of the writer.

The most plausible explanation of chapter 12 is this.1 (1)

Ancient mythology has much to say of the aggressive power of

the Dragon (Chaos) against the older and aboriginal gods;

it tells us of the birth of the sun-god (so in Greek mythology,

1 Porter, pp. 236-240.

118 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF BEVELATION

of the birth of Apollos whose mother was persecuted by the
dragon Pythos) ; and of how this infant sun-god is rescued
by his mother's flight from the assaults of the dragon which
he slays when he is grown. (2) This bit of mythology was
made use of by a Jewish tradition not found in Scripture.
The woman now becomes the true Israel; the dragon is Satan;
the child is the Messiah. The supernatural description of the
woman is retained; Michael and his angels are introduced as
conquering the dragon in heaven at the birth of the Messiah,
and the Messiah himself is represented as slaying the dragon
on earth. (3) Finally, this Christian author adapts these
materials to his purpose which is (to repeat) to represent
Christ as the ultimate symbol of good, vanquishing Satan, the
ultimate symbol of evil. Apparently he makes little change
in the general order of ideas. In the beginning of the chapter,
the woman evidently stands for the true Israel which produced
Christ. At the end of the chapter (v. 17) she has become the
church, whose children keep the commandments of Jesus. The
offspring of the woman are thus Christ and the servants of
Christ, and the clue to the author's whole meaning is found
in verses 10 and 11, where the victory of the Christian faith
is hymned over its arch-enemy. This is the ultimate fact
which Michael's conquest of the dragon and the escape of the
child are supposed to symbolize.

It is a mistake to try to find a separate meaning in all the
details of the chapter. The literalistic mind will make nothing
of it whatsoever. The effort to find in other periods of history
than that in which the prophet himself lived the events to
which the figures refer, leads to nothing but confusion and
total misunderstanding of the underlying and spiritual mean-
ing of the chapter.

The chapter is obscure in its details because, as has already
been stated, we do not know the original source from which
the materials are taken. The author has been content to
leave the traditional material as he found it; not because its
meaning was always clear, perhaps even because its meaning

THE DRAGON AND THE BEAST 119

was not always clear. It served his purpose and pictorially
it was very effective.

It is not difficult, however, to see that the teaching of this
chapter must have been of immense encouragement to the
persecuted Christians to whom it was written. It told them
that the power that had warred against them had already been
overcome in heaven; that the intensity of its warfare upon
them was due to the fact that it realized this and knew that
the time of its earthly triumph was brief; and that they had
but to endure for a brief time in the name of Christ and
victory would be theirs. The same teaching constitutes the
Social Hope of the Christian to-day. The nature of evil is
described in its ultimate terms. It is not a temporary and
an historical fact out of which mankind may be expected to
grow, from which he may hope in due time to graduate. The
Book of Revelation knows nothing about evolutionary
optimism, the easy persuasion that man will develop of him-
self into perfection. Evil is here portrayed as a power so
malignant, and so rooted in the very constitution of the uni-
verse that it can be overthrown only by God Himself. That
ultimate struggle is here described, and its outcome. Milton,
as we all know, has made use of this passage in Paradise Lost,
and pictures how Satan and his defeated hosts were cast into
hell. Finally, the chapter gives us the picture of Christ, born
of woman, as the hope of the world. Satan sought to destroy
the young child, but He was caught away; and He shall rule
the nations, and although his servants shall be persecuted by
Satan for a time, they will ultimately "overcome him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." Here
are the truths of the chapter which are in perfect harmony
with the teaching of the rest of the book and constitute its
permanent social message to the Christians of its time and of
all time.

Chapter 12:1. A great marvel was seen in the heavens:
a woman clothed with the planets and crowned with the
stars. 2. She cried out in the pains of child-birth. 3.

120 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

And another portent appeared, a great warlike dragon hav-
ing the heads and horns and crowns that signify power
and rulership. 4. His tail swept away a third of the heav-
enly host and flung chem to the earth as he fell where the
woman was about to give birth to her child. And he stood
ready to devour it. 5. And she brought forth a son who
was destined to have universal rule, and he was caught up
for safety to the throne of God; 6. and the woman fled
to the wilderness where God protected her during the three
and a half years of the dragon's remaining power.

7, 8, 9. The fall of the dragon was the result of a conflict
in heaven, wheie he and his followers made war on God. But
Michael and his angels overcame him and threw him out
of heaven and his angels with him. 10. And this victory
was celebrated by a great song of praise because the King-
dom of God was rid by the power of Christ of this malignant
foe that had unceasingly opposed the righteous. 11. In
the end, those who loved Christ more than their own lives,
overcame him by the death of Christ and their own sacri-
fice. 12. But heaven's gain meant loss to the earth,
whose inhabitants must endure the concentrated anger of
the dragon who knows that his power will not long endure.

13. For when the dragon realized this, his fury against
the woman broke forth. 14-16. But her escape to the
wilderness was aided supernaturally, and the attacks of
the dragon were miraculously frustrated, and she was safe
during the time of the dragon's rule. 17. He therefore
vented his anger upon her children, those faithful Chris-
tians who must still endure persecution for a time.

Notes v. 1 The woman She cannot be identified with the
mother of our Lord, since she is the mother of all Christians
(v. 17) as well as of the Messiah. She may have been the
church of the Old Testament in the original Jewish oracle
which underlies this chapter. But our author plainly means
in verse 13 and following, the church of the New Testament.
It is safe, therefore, to have the woman stand for "the be-
loved community," the "ideal Zion," the symbol of God's
people of both the Old and the New Testaments. See
3:9, 11:19, 15:5, 21:12-14, where the "true Israel" embraces
alike the Jewish and Christian church. (cf. Isa. 54:1,
66:7-9; Gal. 4:26; II Esdras 10:7. Read Micah 4:9ff.) For
Old Testament suggestions of the description of her heavenly
glory, see Ps. 104 :2 ; Song of Sol. 6 :10 ; and Wisdom of Sol.

THE DKAGON AND THE BEAST 121

6:10. v. 3 Dragon. (See Job 7:12; Ps. 74:14; 89:10; Isa.
27:1, 51:9; Ezek. 32:2; Amos 9:3.) It was easy to identify
this monster with the serpent of Eden and with the devil. The
number seven signifies, of course, completeness, while the ten
horns are taken from Dan. 7:7. The horn is a common sym-
bol of might, w. 5, 6 The child is, of course, in the earlier
verses, the Messiah of Jewish tradition. In the author's
Christian use of that tradition, he is Christ. The reader
will not look too closely in these verses for exact refer-
ences to his earthly life (as for example the presecu-
tion of Herod (v. 13), the escape into Egypt (v. 14),
or the ascension (v. 5). It is at least open to question
whether the author had these events in mind. The
whole description of the Messiah-child is not in the sphere
of the temporal and the historical, but in the realm of
the spiritual and eternal^ v. 6 The time-indication here
as in v. 14 is the stereotyped apocalyptical period for
the domination of evil. The central idea of this verse is that
Satan fails in his attempt to destroy the Messiah. W. 7-9
Michael in the later Old Testament is the patron angel of
Israel. (Dan. 10:21, 12:1.) Serpent It is an interesting
illustration of the essential unity of the Bible that the serpent
of Eden should reappear in the last book of the g^ible, to be
overcome by the child "born of woman." There is no con-
tradiction between the Jewish conception of the expulsion of
the dragon from heaven and the idea of the triumph of the
Christian over him on earth, w. 15-17 This section follows
logically after vv. 1-6. It will not do to base these verses on
the story of Israel's escape from Egypt (cf. Ex. 19:4), for
the details are very dissimilar, and the figure of eagles' wings
was a common and frequent Old Testament simile (cf. Deut.
32:11; Isa. 40:31; Jer. 48:9). The author has taken his
imagery not from the Old Testament but from some familiar
legend. For the time three and a half years (v. 14), cf.
above v. 6. That the author had the Genesis story consciously

122 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

in mind seems apparent from the expression "the rest of her
seed" (v. 17) (cf. Gen. 3:15).

II. The Beast
Chapter 13

In approaching this chapter, also, we bear in mind the fact
that the present purpose of the author is to describe the
church as for the moment in the clutch of evil. It is a full
statement of the resources of evil as they are brought to bear
upon the Christian community. In chapter 12, that power of
evil is traced back to its ultimate source; but the assurance
is given that it has already been overcome in heaven, and
can and will be overcome on earth if the servants of Christ
will but hold fast for a time. In the conviction that "in the
world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world," the author goes on in this chapter to
describe how the intensified fury of the dragon will now fall
upon the church and the witnesses of Jesus. This description
is given in language so bizarre and fantastic as to baffle even
the reader who has begun to be acclimated to the strange
imagery of apocalyptic writing. His imagination is staggered
by all this fantastic and up-heaped conglomeration of beasts
that are killed and come to life, and of cryptic marks and
numbers. He finds it difficult to take it all seriously, and
is haunted by the suspicion that interpreters who try to find
a key to all these puzzles are deceiving themselves as well as
their readers. Without doubt patience is needed by the
modern mind which never thinks in these forms and has
habitually neglected all this kind of writing in Scripture
itself. If the reader, however, determined to follow the story
of this book throughout, and encouraged by such enlighten-
ment as has already come to him, will carefully study this
chapter, it also will be made to yield its secret which will
be found to be no less precious than that which has gone
before.

THE DEAGON AND THE BEAST 123

In general, then, the reader will understand that there is
contained in this chapter the story of how the dragon, Satan,
the power of evil on earth, sets about to persecute the children
of God, the servants of Christ, the "seed of the woman." He
makes the Roman Empire his agent for this persecution. The
beasts of this chapter represent the Roman Empire in full
action against the church, and thus stand for forces, per-
sonalities, institutions which were most real to the first readers
of this book, however vague and unfamiliar they may appear
to us. Here the imperial edict to worship the Emperor is
set forth in all its horror.

In the next place, the reader must remember what has
been repeatedly urged, that this kind of language was very
familiar to the writer of this book and to those to whom it
was first addressed. It is the conventional language of all
apocalypses. Turn, for example, to the seventh chapter of
Daniel and read it carefully, and then there will be little
trouble with the main outlines of the chapter under discussion.
In Daniel, as in Revelation, we are introduced to four beasts
which come up from the sea. The first was like a lion, the
second like a bear, the third like a leopard, and the fourth
and the most dreadful of all was different from the rest and
had teeth of iron, and in his fury devoured and stamped and
broke in pieces all that opposed him. We read further (v.
15) that Daniel was perplexed and grieved in mind, just as
we are, at these strange and savage beasts, and asked for an
explanation of them, and the explanation was given.

These great beasts ... are four kings which shall
arise out of the earth (v. 17). And the fourth beast shall
be the fourth kingdom which shall devour the earth (v. 23).
But the judgment shall sit, and they (the saints) shall
take away his dominion to consume and destroy it unto
the end.

Ko one, that is, who is familiar with the symbolism of the
seventh chapter of Daniel can have any difficulty with the
essential meaning of the thirteenth chapter of Revelation.

124 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

Just as the beasts of that chapter stood for the kingdoms of
Babylon, of the Medes, of the Persians and of Syria, so the
beast of this chapter in Revelation (incidentally alluded to
in 11:7) stands for the Roman Empire in its different mani-
festations. The number of the beasts is reduced from four to
two, and the only difficulties are those of detail and of the
understanding not of the main outlines of the chapter, but of
some of its special features.

A few of these may well receive attention at this point.
Assuming that the beast which the author sees rising out of
the sea is Rome, what is meant by the seven heads and ten
horns and ten crowns'? Fortunately, we are not left in doubt
as to how these features are to be interpreted. If the reader
will turn to chapter 17, vv. 7ff., he will find the explanation
given there. The seven heads are expressly declared to be
the seven hills of Rome, as typifying seven emperors; the
horns are the ten emperors of Rome (whether we count
from Julius Cassar to Nero, or from Augustus to Vespasian) ;
and the ten crowns are the symbol of their authority. It ap-
pears certain, therefore, that the beast symbolizes the Roman
Emperors as Satan's agents in his war against the saints.
Moreover, seven of these emperors are said (17:10) to have
the "name of blasphemy," i. e. were worshipped as God
(omitting, that is, Galba and Otto and Vitellius. See later
in Notes, chapter 17).

But what is meant by the detail in v. 3, where we are told
that one of the heads was wounded to death, and his wound
was healed and the world wondered after the beast?1 The
most plausible and generally accepted explanation is that this
verse refers to the legend about the death of Nero. He died
by suicide, alone, in his villa in an obscure place. These cir-
cumstances made possible the circulation of rumors that he
was not really dead at all, but had fled, and that some day
he would return to wreak fearful vengeance upon Rome.
These rumors spread with rapidity and persisted long after.

1 Beckwith, pp. 400ff.

THE DEAGON AND THE BEAST 125

Decrees appeared in his name and imposters arose claiming
to be Nero. Thus he came to be a mysterious and super-
natural personality and in later Christian tradition was identi-
fied with Anti-Christ. Doubtless this idea was in existence at
the time the Book of Revelation was written, and allusion is
made to it in this verse.

A third detail, the most difficult of all found in this chapter,
calls for special comment. It is contained in v. 18.

Let him that hath understanding count the number of
the beast; for it is the number of a man: and his number is
six hundred, three score and six.

For a full discussion of this passage the reader is referred
to the authorities.1 In the Hebrew and Greek languages the
letters of the alphabet serve also as numbers, so that every
name or even word has a numerical value. What the author
says in this verse, therefore, is that the letters which make
up the name of the beast yield the number six hundred and
sixty-six. The only question is, therefore, what is the signifi-
cation of this exact number, and to what person in contempo-
rary histoiy does it refer? Neither of these questions can be
answered with exactness. With respect to the first, the most
plausible explanation is that as the perfect number would be
seven hundred and seventy-seven, this number which falls
short of it denotes imperfection, or evil, just as eight hundred
and eighty-eight, which the name of Jesus can be made to
signify, surpasses it and denotes divine perfection. With
respect to the second question, all sorts of efforts to find
the name contained in the cryptogram have been made and
will doubtless continue to be made. All of these are per-
missible so long as one limits one's inquiry to contemporary
Roman history. When, however, one strays out into the broad
field of human history and tries to make out that Mohammed
or Luther or Napoleon is meant, one is departing from what
we have seen to be the intention and purpose of Revelation.
1 See Beckwith, pp. 403ff ; Porter, pp. 246ff.

126 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

The consensus of the best opinion is that Nero Csesar is
meant. Other explanations are that the Latin Empire is
meant, or chaos, or a combination of chaos and Nero. "What-
ever we may now guess as to the number, we may rest assured
that it is the past and not the future that hides the mystery
of its meaning."

Two other features of this chapter may be discussed here.
As we have seen, there are two beasts. How are these to be
related to each other, understanding that the beast of verse 1
symbolizes the Roman Empire? What is the meaning of
verse 11, "And I beheld another beast"? Here there are two
possible explanations. One has been made by Ramsay.1
Since in v. 12 it is expressly stated that the function of the
second beast is to execute the authority of the first beast, he
is of the opinion that the second beast typifies the civil and
religious administration of the Roman Empire to which was
entrusted the duty of carrying into effect the imperial decree
of emperor-worship. On the whole, however, scholars are in-
clined to accept the second explanation.2 Since the second
beast is specially designated as a false prophet (v. 14), it is
felt that he stands for the pagan priesthood, or "the special
Roman functionaries charged with the maintenance and ex-
tension of emperor-worship throughout the Empire."

Finally, what shall we make of the mark (v. 16) which all
must receive in order to purchase or to sell food ? 3 This may
mean that a stamp which Christians would consider to be
idolatrous must be affixed to papers licensing buyers or sellers.
Since this would be a tacit acknowledgment of emperor-wor-
ship, Asian Christians would be ruined financially by the in-
fliction of this boycott upon traders who had not proved their
loyalty to the emperor. It is possible, however, that the ex-
pression refers to a future or imagined branding of the
emperor's name on the foreheads of those who refused to
bow the knee to the emperor's statue. In this case how elo-

1 Seven Cities, p. 97.

2 See Beckwith, p. 409.

3 See Ramsay, op. cit., p. 105ff.

THE DEAGON AND THE BEAST 127

quent becomes the word of promise more than once uttered
in this book, "I will write upon him my new name" (cf. 17:5,
19:12, 22:4).

Truly, "here is the patience and faith of the saints"; here
is the situation which calls for endurance and fidelity. We
have described every form of persecution which can be
brought to bear: violence, deceit, overmastering power, the
relentless discovery of all who refuse to submit, starvation,
and obloquy. The chapter will stand for all ages as the sum-
mary of all possible affliction. But in the center of it there
stands always the shining hope. All of this evil is marked
for destruction. Its triumph is brief. There is the Book
of Life of the slain Lamb in which the names of God's fol-
lowers are eternally inscribed. At this point we must stand,
we must endure, we must be faithful. However powerless
for the moment the cause of Christ may seem to be, in the
end it shall prevail. If we were but able to take into our
souls a tithe of the meaning of this chapter, it would be to
us like iron in the blood. "Would that we could read this
chapter with imagination vivid enough to enable us to do
justice to the courage of those Christians in Asia! It would
make us ashamed of our feebleness and cowardice where the
cause of Christ is concerned. It is a summons to earnestness,
to endurance, to faith. And now, as then, it contains the
promise of ultimate victory." 1

Chapter 13:1. Again, I stood on the seashore and I saw
a huge beast come out of the sea, with all the marks of
authority and power, and on his heads were blasphemous
names. 2. In this beast were concentrated all the powers
of evil of the four beasts of Daniel's vision, and his mas-
ter, the dragon, gave him full authority and power. 3. One
of his heads was apparently slain, but the wound was healed
and the world went after him in wonder 4. and worshipped
both the dragon and the beast, for men felt that there
was no power on earth that could overcome him. 5, 6. And
he was permitted to utter blasphemies against God and
heaven for a limited time. 7. And the beast persecuted
1 Deane, p. 155.

128 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

God's children and conquered them, and all the rest of the
inhabitants of the earth. 8. And all men, except the elect
of God, worshipped him. 9. Give ear to this. 10. If one
is destined for captivity, to captivity he must go. If one
resists death with the sword, he must himself be killed.
Here is the opportunity to show endurance and fidelity.
11. And I saw another beast. This one came out of the
earth; and he had lamb's horns, but his voice was the
dragon's. 12. This was the agent of the first beast, and
carried out his will and made men worship the beast whose
wound was healed. 13, 14. He deceived men by use of su-
pernatural powers, and bade them worship the beast, be-
cause he made them believe that he was really alive and
could speak. 15. And he commanded that all should be
killed who would not worship him. 16, 17. And he compelled
men to worship him by making this worship a condition of
getting the necessities of life. 18. Would you know who
this beast is? His number is six hundred and sixty-six.

Notes v. 1 And I stood The Revised Version adopts an
alternate reading: "And he stood." In this case the sentence
belongs to the previous verse, and "he" refers to Christ. One
reading is as good as the other. The Beast For this word and
its use, cf. Note on chapter 11:7. In this chapter the word
refers to the Roman Empire (v. 1) or the Roman emperor
(v. 4ff). In the latter case, the beast is identical with Anti-
Christ. The coming of the beast out of the sea is taken di-
rectly from Dan. 7:3, but ultimately from some myth of the
beast as a sea-monster. In 11:7, 17:8, the beast comes from
an abyss, because the actual author of evil is meant. Seven
heads In 17:9; these are identified with the seven hills of
Rome, as symbols of the seven emperors who received divine
worship. Ten horns (see Dan. 7:7, 24). Here the number
ten is used symbolically. All nations are to be subject to
the beast (cf. 17:12). Names of blasphemy, i.e., divine titles
taken by the Roman Emperors, v. 2 This description com-
bines the first three beasts of Daniel, (cf. Hosea 13 :7ff.) The
fourth beast of Daniel is represented by the ten horns. The
meaning is that this beast is the concentration of all powers of
evil. v. 3 does not mean that the beast survives in spite of
the loss of one of his heads. Rather in this verse and also in

THE DEAGON AND THE BEAST 129

v. 12 the beast is identified with the head, which here repre-
sents him. v. 5 Taken from Dan. 7 :8, 20, 25. Great here means
proud. Note once more the conventional limit of the time of
the power of evil. The point always is that there is to be
an end to the sway of evil, and that that end is fixed. This
note of hope is hardly absent from a single chapter in this
book. v. 6 Suggested by Dan. 7:25, 8:10. v. 7 (cf. Dan.
7:21, 23. See also Rev. 5:9). v. 8 Book of Life (see on
3:5). Here as in 21:27 called the Lamb's Book. The words
"Lamb slain" may possibly be an interpolation. In any
event the words "from the foundation of the world" are to
be joined with "written." The names of the faithful have
been there from the beginning, v. 10 The probably correct
reading of this verse has been suggested in the text. Chris-
tians are here urged to avoid the use of force in resisting
persecution. Not violence, but patient endurance will bring
the victory, (cf. Matt. 26:52.) v. 11 By coming out of the
earth, the human nature of this beast is possibly indicated.
This beast also is lamb-like in power as contrasted with the
might of the first beast (v. 2), and speaks with the guile of
the serpent, and not with the loud voice of blasphemy, v. 12
Before him, i.e., as in the presence of his master, (cf. Lk.
1:75; I Kings, 17:1.) w. 13-15 (cf. II Thess. 2:9; Mark
13:22; II Kings 1:10, 12.) w. 14b-15 refer to the Nero-myth,
and to the Christian tradition of Nero as re-incarnate in Anti-
Christ. "Legends of statues assuming the functions of life
are familiar in antiquity (as Pygmalion and Galatea), and
even in the saints-legends of the mediaeval church." v. 16
The mark On the whole, the idea of branding seems most
likely. Devotees of a god were accustomed to brand them-
selves with his mark. cf. Is. 44:5 (R. V. margin). This
practice is doubtless referred to in Gal. 6:17. Akin to this is
the custom of branding slaves with the mark of their master.
There is no evidence, however, that any edict contained this
demand for compulsory branding. It may have been used

130 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

figuratively by the author to denote that all must give evidence
of loyalty, v. 18 Understanding, i.e. skill in deciphering the
meaning of the number, cf. Dan. 9:22. Count in this con-
nection means calculate.

CHAPTER XI

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Revelation, Chapters 14, 15, 16

THE reader will bear in mind what the purpose of the
author of the book has been from chapter 9 onward.
That purpose, as we have seen, is to carry the conflict back
to its original sources, to trace it to its very roots, and to
point out that the victory with which the book is to end
is no temporary triumph, but the final conquest of the very
principle of evil by God and by the all-conquering Christ.

The author prepares for this culminating portion of this
great spiritual drama by receiving a fresh commission to
utter these sublime prophecies (chapter 10). Then he re-
assures his readers of the safety of God's servants in the
midst of the terrific impact between the forces of good and
evil which is to follow by the vision of the inner shrine and
the indestructibility of the witnesses of God (chapter 11:1-13).
Then, after a brief passage in which we hear a hymn of
ascription to God, and behold for a moment the ark of
safety in the temple of heaven (chapter 11:14-19), we are
led back in imagination to the original conflict between God
and Satan and are told how Satan, vanquished in heaven,
is permitted for a time to persecute with venomous hatred
the children of God and the servants of Christ on earth.
That persecution which now falls upon the early Christians
of the primitive church is told in detail in chapter 13. The
beast of the Roman Empire, receiving full authority from
Satan, commands them to worship the Roman emperor upon
penalty of death. This persecution they must endure with

131

132 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF BEVELATION

patience and fortitude, knowing that they are the elect of God
and that one day the beast is to be overcome.

We now arrive at the point when that final battle is to
take place which will result in casting the beast into the lake
of brimstone and fire, and in the salvation of the children of
God. For the description of this great battle scene, the au-
thor makes elaborate preparation. First, he gives us a beau-
tiful picture of the followers of the Lamb as they are gath-
ered, faultless, before the throne of God (chapter 14:1-5).
Next he issues, as it were, a great proclamation, heralding
the beginning of this tremendous conflict and warning all
to flee from the wrath to come (chapter 14:6-20). Then we
have the final series of judgments, depicted in the emptying
of the seven bowls (chapters 15 and 16). After another
hallelujah chorus, the angels of God come forward and at
the word of command they empty the vials of the final judg-
ments of God upon the world (chapter 15:4-8, and chapter
16). Let us take up each one of these sections in turn.

1. The Vision of the 'Redeemed (Chapter 14:1-5)

As we have already noted, it is the habit of the, author to
contrast shadow and light. Over against the picture of evil
there is continually set the shining hope of ultimate victory.
This fact in itself constitutes one of the fundamental spiritual
messages of the book. We are never allowed to forget for
a moment what the ultimate outcome is to be. When things
are at their worst, some message always pierces the dark-
ness. Either we have given to us a short, sharp summons
to endurance, or a parable of assurance, or a hymn of vic-
tory breaks in triumph over our bewildered minds, or the
doors of heaven swing open for a moment and we see the
ten thousand times ten thousand who have endured to the
end and have received the crown of life. This alternation
of darkness and light makes up the social message of the
Book of Revelation. It is essentially a tract for hard times.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 133

It is a book for the social worker to read. He can match
the darkness of those days with the darkness which he feels;
the burden which lay upon those souls with the burden which
lies upon his own. He knows that he is not called upon
to endure any worse trials than those which are depicted in
this book. But underneath it all and over it all and running
through it all, there is the spiritual assurance, the note of
victory, the knowledge that in a sense the fight already has
been won and that for him there remains only the duty
to endure to the end. This is the summons which cannot
be resisted. The fact that the life, of faithful endurance, of
refusal to bow the knee to Baal, and the willing acceptance
of any sacrifice which this loyalty entails numbers us among
the followers of the lamb now and forever in an imperishable
appeal and a promise of infinite hope.

This vision of the redeemed presents only a few features
which demand special mention. What does the author mean
by Mount Zion? Are we to think of it as in heaven or on
earth ? Here there is much difference of opinion.1 It is doubt-
less true that anywhere in the Old Testament and in the
Jewish apocalypses, the name, synonymous with Jerusalem,
denotes the earthly and Messianic kingdom. (Joel 2:32;
Isa. 24:23; Mic. 4:7; etc.) In Heb. 12:22 it is also true
that Mount Zion is the perfect archetype of the earthly Jeru-
salem and not heaven as the abode of God. In this book the
author may be thinking of such an earthly Zion in a redeemed
world. Yet even with him it takes on heavenly features,
and for us it is impossible to think of anything save the
heavenly Jerusalem. It is not, therefore, a question which it
is important, even if it were possible, for us to decide. In
the second place, how are we to understand the number
144,000? Some feel that this number stands symbolically for
a select company of those who are specially distinguished by
their holiness. But the simpler interpretation is that it stands

JSee Beckwith, p. 646.

134 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

for the whole body of the sealed and the redeemed.1 (See
chapter 7.) The clause denning their chastity is probably to
be taken literally. As over against the prevailing immorality,
the prophet thus depicts their ascetic purity. It is to be
noted, however, that there is nothing in the book to show
that celibacy was a part of our author's moral ideal.

The close parallelism between this section and the preced-
ing chapter will not escape the reader's attention. Over
against the mark of the beast, Christ's followers have the
Father's name on their foreheads. The worshippers of the
beast declared that no one could war against him; and here
the redeemed sing the might of God before his throne. And
both chapters begin abruptly: "And I stood and saw a
beast." "And I looked, and lo, a Lamb."

Chapter 14:1. Then in contrast to the beast and his
worshippers, I saw Christ in the heavenly Jerusalem sur-
rounded by the whole number of the redeemed who were
marked as belonging to God. 2, 3. And I heard the reverbe-
ration of many voices, accompanied by music, singing a
song before God which only the redeemed could under-
stand. 4. These have kept themselves from every manner
of evil and they shall follow Christ always.

Notes v. 1 The Lamb This is the common designation of
Christ in Revelation. The names Jesus or Christ is used but
five times, and the name Lord once. In all other cases the
Lamb is used (28 in all), and always in the most august scenes.
The reference is plainly to the redeeming work of Christ,
since this book is a Gospel of Redemption. The glorified
Christ is He who has suffered death to redeem the people
of God. Outside of Revelation and the Fourth Gospel, the
word is used but once in the New Testament, I Pet. 1:19.
W. 2-3 "Who the singers are is left indefinite as in 11:16,
12:10, 19:6. Probably they are the . . . hosts of angels."
(cf. 7:11; Lk. 15:10.) v. 4 The specific addition of the
words "with women" excludes a metaphorical use of this

1 See Beckwith, pp. 648, 650.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 135

expression. This verse and that which follows contains an
admonition to all who would share the glory of the redeemed.

2. Last warnings. (Chapter 14:6-20)

We have here a series of short warnings or proclamations
in which, as it were, the field is cleared for action. These
announcements are made in the most solemn manner, seven
times over. First, an angel is seen flying in mid-heaven with
the glad tidings that judgment is near and calling upon all
to repent (vv. 6, 7). This glad tidings is the burden of the
book. It constitutes the hope of its social message. "The
hour of judgment is come." It is in this conviction that all
workers for truth and righteousness can continue to endure.
These tidings are like the word coming to an army that has
struggled to the limit of its strength, that the hour of victory
is at hand. It requires no imagination to understand what
these glad tidings meant to those early~ Christians. They
bring the same hope to us to-day. Again, a second angel
proclaims the impending fall of Rome, the agent of Satan and
the implacable foe of the people of God (v. 8). Let us re-
member what reaches of faith and spiritual confidence were
needed to make such a proclamation while Rome still stood
apparently invincible, with God's people helpless in its grasp.
It is a verse for all to lay to heart at some similar moment of
contrast between truth on the scaffold and wrong on the
throne. To the eye of this prophet, Rome in the sight of
God had already fallen. Its death-blow had already been
given. We must believe as he did.

"For right is right since God is God
And right the day must win;
To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin."

A third angel pronounces sentence on the beast and all who
worship him (vv. 9-11). Here we have the reversal of the

136 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

situation described in 11:7-10 and 13:12-17. Let it not be
forgotten that terrible as are these descriptions of the punish-
ment of evil, they do stand for spiritual realities. It is,
after all, a weakened sense of sin and of the moral law
which has banished from the modern mind the impression
of any meaning in these symbols of divine retribution. If
we had even a partial conception of the physical and mental
agonies endured in this life by those who have persistently
violated the laws of nature and of God, and of spiritual
remorse which like the furies pursues many an outraged con-
science, we should be in a better position to grasp the reality
here depicted: "an anguish which only spirits can know; the
sense of something lost, endless discontent for what has been
exchanged for it, the undying worm of conscience." The
author himself repeats a warning which he had already ut-
tered in the previous chapter (cf. v. 12, 13:10). Here, he
says, is the opportunity which the servants of Christ have
to exhibit their powers of endurance. Among all forms of
witness-bearing, none perhaps is more effective than simple
continuance in faithful living. Not to be weary in well-doing
is the final demonstration of true sainthood. It has been
the perseverance of the saints more than any other single
quality which has borne effective witness to the realities of
faith. A voice from heaven then pronounces a blessing on
the martyred dead (v. 13). This is one of the most familiar
verses in the Bible. It is made sacred for us by its use to-
day when we come to lay away our dead. But how its spirit-
ual eloquence and meaning are heightened when we under-
stand the circumstances which first caused it to be uttered!
Imagine what these words meant to those who first read them.
And it is our hope to-day that nothing is lost in the lives of
those who bear faithful witness to Christ. "They rest from
their labors but their works follow with them" (R. V.). Noth-
ing in the realm of righteousness is ever lost. Every right
word, deed, and thought is eternally conserved and has its
permanent place in a world that shall endure long after the

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 137

visible world has ceased to be. This is the blessing of those
who die in the Lord. They and their works are imperishable.

He that doeth the will of God abideth forever. (I John
2:17.)

A vision of the Messiah as harvester, reminiscent of Daniel
and of the parable of the tares, then follows (vv. 14, 16) ;
and another, reminding us of a familiar passage from Joel
(3:13), pictures God trampling his foes under his feet in
the winepress of his wrath (w. 18-20). It is not necessary
to separate these two in our thought of what they represent.
Harvest and vintage together represent the gathering of
all mankind before the judgment seat of God. It is a carrying
over to the moral field the lesson of nature. The natural
year is a parable of personal and of human history. "What-
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." It is a final
repetition of a solemn lesson taught by the prophets and re-
inforced by Christ of the gathering of the wheat into the
heavenly garner, but casting out to be trodden under foot
that which was worthless in his sight. No one can fully
understand the graphic symbolism of the winepress who has
not witnessed an oriental actually treading the juice from the
grape. The prophet Isaiah has made use of it in a well-
known passage (chap. 63:1-6) to describe the divine wrath.
Doubtless our author had it in mind when he wrote. It is
needless to add that Julia Ward Howe found in this passage
from Revelation the inspiration for her opening verse of
the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Chapter 14:6, 7. I saw an angel flying across the skies
and proclaiming the everlastingly glad tidings that men must
now, if ever, repent, since the hour of judgment has at
last arrived. 8. Another angel followed proclaiming, as
if it had already happened, that Rome has fallen because
of her sins. 9-11. A third angel told of the endless tor-
ments reserved for the idolatrous worshippers of the beast,
and for all who are marked with his name. 12. Here
appears the opportunity for the fidelity and endurance of
the people of God. 13. Then a voice from heaven spoke of

V

138 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

the blessedness of those who were willing even to die for
Christ's sake. Their toils are over and all that they have
been and all that they have done goes on, undying, with
them. 14. Then 1 saw a figure like the Son of Man appear-
ing on a cloud, crowned like a king, and holding a sickle
in his hand. 15. And when an angel bade him, he reaped
what was ripe from the earth. 16-20. Still another angel,
when commanded to do so by an angel who had power over
fire, gathered the grapes of the earth and cast them into
the winepress of the wrath of God whence a flood of wine,
like blood, flowed over all the earth.

Notes v. 6 Everlasting G-ospel Not the gospel of grace, but
the glad tidings that God's purpose for his people is about
to be accomplished (cf. Mark 1:15). v. 8 Babylon formed
the ancient parallel to Rome. In all later Jewish apocalypses
(probably also in I Pet. 5:13) Babylon became the mystic
name for the city of Rome. The language here is taken
directly from Isa. 21:9. (cf. Jer. 50:2, 51:8.) Two ideas are
blended in the phrases which follow: Rome's enticement of
other nations to idolatry and immorality, and the cup of
the wrath of God (cf. Jer. 25:15; Job. 21:20, etc.)
w. 10-11 Unending torment in fire is the conventional pun-
ishment everywhere in apocalyptical literature, and so in the
sayings of Christ, assigned to Satan and his followers. No
theory of "everlasting punishment" is thus to be read into
the words. The phrase "in the presence of the Lamb," sug-
gesting that the bliss of the faithful is in full sight, reminds
us of Lk. 16:23. v. 13 from henceforth, i.e. all through the
ages; works follow with them (cf. II Esdras 7:35). "The
work shall follow and the reward shall be showed, and good
deeds shall awake." w. 14-20 What is here revealed in an-
ticipating visions is fully described in chapters 19-20. Both
of these figures of the harvest and of the wine-press are
familiar to Bible readers, and both are descriptive of the
same event, v. 14 Son of Man Taken from Dan. 7:13. The
description here makes it probable that the Messiah and not
an archangel is meant. The fact that he is told by another
angel to thrust in the sickle does not present an insuperable

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 139

difficulty, since this latter angel evidently speaks for God Him-
self, (cf. John 5:19, and Acts 1:7.) For a similar de-
scription of the coming of the Son of Man, see Matt. 24:30,
26:64. v. 15ff (cf. Joel 3:13.) vv. 17ff (cf. Joel 3:13; Gen.
49:11; Isa. 63:2-4; Lam. 1:15.) The connection of this
vision with the preceding one is clear. The first pictures the
whole judgment by Christ, and the second a particular part
of it, viz. the vengeance of God upon the wicked executed
by an angel (Matt. 13:41, 49). v. 18 "from the altar." This
angel comes from the altar of incense to show that the
prayers of the saints are about to be answered. Power over
fire This detail is not clear, but the author's purpose may be
to associate him with the burning fires of incense which
ascend with the prayers of the saints, v. 20 without the city
refers probably to the traditional conception of the defeat
of the enemies of Israel near Jerusalem. A thousand and
six hundred furlongs — the symbolical representation of a
vast field of blood. It is not possible to say just why this
particular number is used.

3. The Final Judgments (Chapters 15 and 16)

We come at last to the long-delayed third series of judg-
ments. They had been heralded by the blowing of the seventh
trumpet-blast in chapter 11:15, and they look forward to the
final events in this great drama of judgment, the destruction
of Rome and the consummation of the moral order. Like
the first and second series of woes it will describe a terrible
and supernatural punishment of the world. Unlike them,
however, it will eventuate in the final establishment of the
kingdom of God upon earth.

Certain difficulties are presented to the reader by this third
series of woes. For one thing, it has been so long delayed
that one may have forgotten that it had not yet taken place.
The reasons for this delay have, however, already been stated.
Just because these are the final judgments, they are ap-

140 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

proached with deliberation, and the author must make clear
that the struggle is carried back from the field of contem-
porary history, to the very origins of Satan's opposition to
God. Again, the absence of the special designation of these
woes by the sounding of the seventh trumpet (chapters 8:13;
10 :7) is somewhat perplexing. In place of this, we have
seven angels (chapter 15:1), with the seven last plagues.
This third series of judgments, then, takes its place as the
seventh in the list of trumpet-plagues, but by the change
of form is symbolized its completeness. No other series is
to follow. A third difficulty is this: as these judgments are
the climax of all the others, we should naturally expect them
to be more terrible than those which precede them, and to
be in a class, as it were, by themselves. Instead of this,
they are less detailed and less vivid and impressive in their
imagery and even appear to repeat the punishments that fol-
lowed the sounding of the six trumpets. Are we to suppose
that the author has, so to speak, exhausted his vocabulary
and his powers of imagination — that he has nothing new that
he can tell us? A more likely hypothesis is this: that in
the preceding series, the judgments are confined to the de-
scription of the punishments themselves. In this case, how-
ever, the mind of the author runs rapidly forward to the
consummation — the casting of Satan into the bottomless pit,
the general Resurrection, and the final blessedness of the
Redeemed. The real climax, that is, to the emptying of the
seven bowls is not to be found in chapter 16, but in chapters
17-20. There we have new and distinctive material, to which
chapters 15 and 16 are a mere prelude.

Another difference between this third series and the series
of the seals and the trumpets is to be noted. Each of these
is divided into two sections, first of four visions, then of three
which are different in character. When the seals were opened,
we had four horsemen and then the souls of the slain, an
earthquake, and the seventh seal opening up to the first
trumpet. Similarly, when the trumpets were sounded, we

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 141

had four plagues, then a falling star, an army of cavalry, and
the seventh trumpet leading up to the final wars. But in
the case of the seven bowls, the judgments are all alike and
the seventh bowl is poured out like the rest. Then an angel
is ready to show to the prophet the complete destruction of
Rome, the final collapse of evil.

When chapter 15 opens announcement is made of the ap-
proach of the seven last plagues, in which the wrath of God
is at last completely expressed and accomplished. As so often
before, there is light before darkness. We hear, before these
bowls of wrath are emptied, a hymn of praise by the saints
of God who are seen standing in heaven as victors over the
beast and glorifying God for his acts of righteous judgment.
It is a familiar hymn, as old as Moses and yet finding its
completion in the redemption of Christ. Then, with solemn
pomp and majesty the sanctuary of heaven is seen and seven
angels appear with garments of white and wearing (cf.
1:13) girdles of gold. From the presence of God Himself
and by the hand of one of the four living creatures that stand
nearest to Him, there are handed to these angels seven ves-
sels filled full with the wrath of God. A great cloud, the
symbol of God's presence and power, fills his temple, and
God's own voice bids the angels go forth and empty the
vessels of his wrath. This they do and plagues follow which
remind us of the plagues of Egypt and are not dissimilar
to those which resulted from the sounding of the trumpets.
There are two brief interludes in chapter 16. The first occurs
in vv. 5-7 when the angel of the rivers and the angel of the
altar join in praising God for his judgments. The second is
contained in v. 15, where the prophet inserts in the name of
the Lord a warning to be ready because of the suddenness
of the advent. In this way, these chapters take their place
in the whole plan of the book, and with literary skill and
dramatic power lead up to the final consummation.

In the spiritual interpretation of these judgments, as for
those which have preceded, we hold fast to the idea that

142 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF KEVELATION

the writer is thinking of his readers and of their necessities
and is keeping close to his purpose of encouraging them. A
favorite way of interpreting the Book of Revelation at one
time, the influence of which has not yet passed, was to find
in these judgments a prediction of coming historical events,
such as the Turkish Invasion and the French Revolution.
The world war has naturally stimulated that kind of in-
terpretation. Men have seen exact parallels between the ca-
tastrophes of this chapter and those which have befallen
the world during these past years. But the writer is think-
ing only of contemporary history. He finds the material for
his descriptions of judgment either in the Old Testament with
its Egyptian plagues, or in the catastrophes in nature or so-
ciety which actually befell, or were likely to befall, the Roman
world of his day. The spiritual meaning of the chapter,
however, is neither temporary nor local. The wrath of God
does fall upon a recreant world. His judgments are true and
righteous altogether. The cataclysm of the war years was
in this spiritual sense a repetition of these chapters of judg-
ment from the Book of Revelation. The Armageddon of the
prophet's imagination became in very truth the vast slaughter-
fields of modem Europe. No period in history since this
book was written bears such witness to the essential truth
of these chapters as that through which our own generation
has lived. No detail of this terrible chapter has been missing.
It has indeed been given unto us to drink "the cup of the
wine of the fierceness of his wrath."

Chapter 15:1. Then I saw another great and wonderful
portent in heaven: seven angels having the seven last
plagues which will complete the wrath of God. 2. But also
I had a vision of the blessedness of those who had refused
to worship the beast. These stood upon what looked like
a sea of fiery glass and with harps 3. they sang a song such
as Moses sang when the children of Israel were delivered
from Egypt, but they sang it of Christ by whose death they
had been redeemed, and they praised God whose righteous
ways are unerring 4. and whose power is now about to be
recognized by all the nations. 5, 6. Then I saw the seven

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 143

angels come forth all clothed in white. 7. And all of the
cherubim gave them seven gold bowls filled with God's
wrath. 8. And as of old the temple was filled with the
smoke of the glory and power of God, so that no one could
enter it until the plagues had been completed. 16:1,2. Then
the command came to the angels from God Himself, and
the first angel poured out his bowl on the earth and a ter-
rible ulcer afflicted the worshippers of the beast. 3. The
second angel emptied his bowl upon the seas, which became
thick red blood, and every living thing in it perished.
4. The third emptied his bowl into all fresh waters, and
they also were turned into blood. 5, 6. And when the guard-
ian angel of the waters declared that it was just that they
who have shed blood should drink blood, 7. the altar-angel
answered, Verily the judgments of God are lust. 8. The
fourth angel poured his bowl upon the sun whose terrible
heat then scorched men: 9. yet even then they reviled
God and refused to repent. 10. The fifth emptied his bowl
on the very throne whereon the beast sat, and darkness
fell upon his whole empire and his subjects gnawed their
tongues in agony, 11. cursed God because of their suffer-
ings, and would not repent. 12. The sixth angel poured
out his bowl over the great river Euphrates, which straight-
way dried up so that the Parthians could pass over as they
marched against Eome. 13, 14. Then I saw Satan and the
beast and the pagan priesthood emit evil spirits which
looked like frogs which should incite the nations of the world
to a terrible world-conflict, which will take place on God's
great day. 15. (Eemember, this day can come at any mo-
ment. Blessed is he who is watching and ready so that he
will not be unprepared.) 16. And the evil spirits mus-
tered the nations together for this last war at the place
called (in Hebrew) Harmagedon. 17. The seventh and
last angel poured out his bowl upon the air. A voice from
heaven declared this to be the end. 18. Then there fol-
lowed confused voices, lightnings and thunders and such an
earthquake as the world had never known, 19. which split
Eome into three pieces and shattered all other cities. Eome
was not forgotten. She drank to the dregs the cup of
God's anger. 20. Islands vanished, no mountain remained
to be seen, 21. and crushing hail-stones fell upon men who
continued to curse God because the distress caused by the
hail was fearful.

Notes 15:1 Seven is the complete number. (See Lev. 26:18,
21, 24, 28.) v. 2 Sea of glass (cf. 4:6) describing the pave-
ment of the throne-room of God. (See Ex. 24:10; Ezek.
1:26.) The notion of a sea in the heavens was common

144 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

(Gen. 1:7), and may have been due to the likeness in ap-
pearance of sky and sea. In this case the suggestion of fire
here may go back to lightning. There is no special symboli-
cal meaning, v. 3 Song of Moses and the Lamb1 For a
song of Moses for deliverance, see Exodus 15. Since the
plagues which follow bear certain resemblances to those of
Egypt there is no reason why this song may not have been
meant. It may, however, refer to the song of Moses in Deut.
32, which bears a closer verbal resemblance to the song in
this chapter, which is not one of deliverance so much as of
praise of the righteousness of God in his dealings with men.
The song is also of the Lamb because Christ is the agent of
God in the revelation and execution of his judgments, v. 8
For the cloud as a sign of the presence and power of God,
see Ex. 19:18, 24:16; I Kings 8:10fT; II Chron. 5:13; Isa. 6:4;
Ezek. 10:4. 16:2, 3 The first plague is like that of the boils in
Exodus 9:10, while the second reminds us of Ex. 7:20 and
Rev. 8:8. In the corresponding trumpet-plague, however,
only a third part of the sea was affected, w. 4-7 has its
parallel in Ex. 7:20, and Rev. 8:11. The song which fol-
lows is akin to 15:3ff, and has the same meaning. In the
angel of the altar reference may be made to the souls of the
martyrs, 6:9, or to the prayer of the saints, 8:3-5. v. 10 (cf.
Ex. 10:22.) v. 12 The drying up of the Euphrates has for
its ultimate origin, of course, the miracle at the Red Sea.
(Ex. 14:21ff. cf. Isa. 11:16; cf. Rev. 9:14.) The dragon
and his two agents make an unheralded entrance on the scene.
The kings here are different from v. 12. Here all nations
are meant, and are identical with those of 17:12-14. In this
passage we have the preparation for the world-conflict which
actually takes place in chapter 19. Of this preparation, the
possible attack of the Parthian kings and the gathering of
all nations are component parts, v. 13 Frogs Possibly sug-
gested by Ex. 8:6, but more likely by a familiar figure in
Persian mythology, v. 16 Harmageddon Not found in He-
i See Beckwith, pp. 676, 677.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 145

brew literature. The author either invented it or found it
in some source unknown to us and used it simply to give
pictorial precision to his picture of the great and final battle
between Anti-Christ and the Messiah, w. 17ff. In the de-
scription of the last plague the author endeavors by every
means to heighten the effect. The adjective "great" is used
seven times, and the resources of his vocabulary are exhausted
in his efforts to depict this final and tragical judgment.

CHAPTER XII

THE DOOM OF EVIL

Revelation, Chapters 17, 18, 19, 20

THE connection is clear between the chapters that have
preceded and these chapters which follow. There we
had described the beginning of the end. Here is the end
itself. Precisely as the author carried the evil which he tells
us is marked for destruction back from its temporary mani-
festations in history to its ultimate sources, so here in the
account of its destruction, he gives us not only the story of
the downfall of the Roman Empire (chapters 17 and 18), but
also of the overthrow of evil itself as it is incarnate in Satan,
the spirit of evil (chapters 19 and 20). Thus the full spirit-
ual purpose of the author and the full spiritual unity of the
book are achieved. What we are told in these chapters is the
summary of the Social Hope not only of its age, but of every
age. We are told, first, that this present world-order is un-
der the control of God and subject to his righteous judg-
ments. Nothing is more remarkable in the description of
Rome in the seventeenth chapter than the full justice done
to her power and regal glory. "There is not an untrue stroke
in it. The woman is arrayed in purple and scarlet, the colors
of empire. She is decked with gold and precious stones and
pearls. The wealth of the whole world is poured into her
lap. She holds in her hand the golden cup of an advanced
civilization. She is poised upon the beast, the symbol of
empire. She sits upon many waters, that is, rules over many
subject peoples and nations. Tributary kings carry out her
behests. It is a remarkable picture of the wealth and

146

THE DOOM OF EVIL 147

glory and dominion of Rome which the author gives." 1 But
this is not the whole truth about her. Commensurate with
the power of Rome is the guilt of Rome. This, too, the au-
thor portrays with unflinching precision. He uses the harsh
language of harlotry which the Old Testament prophets had
applied to Jerusalem, and calls Rome the mother of harlots,
who not only had sunk herself to the bottom of immorality
and idolatry, but had seduced other nations to the sink-level
of her own iniquity and had herself become drunk with the
blood of martyrs. With these few swift strokes the author
depicts the terrible and irretrievable moral degradation be-
cause of which she is to be destroyed.

The spiritual truth of this chapter becomes the moral les-
son of all history, and is the burden of its social message
to its time and to all time. Pomp and glory count for noth-
ing in the eyes of God. Nations are judged by their moral
obedience to the eternal and just laws of God. The dirge
which our author intones over Rome is reflected in Rudyard
Kipling's noble Recessional:

"Far-called our navies melt away,
On dune and headland sinks the fire;
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!

"If drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boasting as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the law:
Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!"

This "valiant dust that builds on dust" sinks into nothing-
ness in chapter 18 with a pathos and power of description
1 Deane, pp. 202-4.

148 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OP REVELATION

which is not surpassed elsewhere in the book, and a piercing
lamentation is uttered by the beholders, who weep and mourn
and cry out as they look upon the smoke of her burning:

Woe, woe, the great city. She that was arrayed in fine
linen and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and
precious stone and pearl! for in one hour so great riches
is made desolate. (Rev. 18:16, 17.)

The destruction of Rome, however, does not complete the
author's purpose to demonstrate that the very principle of
evil, of which Rome was the temporary and historical repre-
sentation and instrument, is itself marked for destruction.
To this consummation the author presses swiftly forward.
After a characteristic introduction, contrasting vividly the
picture of the ruin of Rome with the triumph of the hymning
servants of God, who prepare for the marriage-supper of
the Lamb, the heavens are opened, and Christ the conqueror
is seen to ride forth followed by the saints of God "in bright
array." "The King of Glory passes on his way"; and over
against Him there are the beast and the kings of the earth
and the pagan priests and all who have opposed God and
persecuted his people. The shock of the final conflict is
about to take place. That battle is not described. There is
no real opposition. Evil is helpless before Him who goes
forth conquering and to conquer. Only the sequence in the
different manifestations of its destruction is given us. First
the beast is taken, — Imperial Rome as personified in Anti-
Christ; second, the pagan priesthood and the false prophet
are cast into the brimstone lake; third, their followers are
killed with the sword. There remains only the dragon, Satan,
the original principle of evil itself.

The destruction of Satan is the theme of chapter 20, one
of the most fateful chapters of the New Testament, if we
consider its influence upon subsequent Christian thought. But
for one who has closely followed the spiritual interpretation
of this book, the meaning of this chapter stands out clear as
daylight. We should not expect that Satan could be dis-

THE DOOM OF EVIL 149

posed of as summarily as his inferior agents. We would
look naturally for more resistance, for temporary escape
and for final capture and annihilation. Precisely that is the
account of the final duel in this chapter. Evil once taken,
it seems as if the millennium had come at last, and for a time
the people of God live in security and peace. But Satan will
not yet submit. His might has not yet been overcome. To
the very end, the author thus does full justice to the tre-
mendous and tenacious and inveterate power of evil. Satan
breaks loose once more for a time, but is at last taken and
cast into the brimstone lake,

Where are also the beast and the false prophet, and
they shall be tormented forever and ever. (Rev. 20:10.)

The doom of evil is complete.

The spiritual truth of these chapters constitute the final
basis of the Social Hope, since they describe the destruction
of evil itself. With that assurance, "hearts are brave again
and arms are strong." We can imagine what it must have
meant to those early Christians to read the description of
how, one after another, the beast and the pagan prophets
and finally Satan himself were sent headlong down into the
brimstone lake! Upon our hearts the truth falls with no
loss of meaning. Two thousand years have passed since this
glowing prophecy was written. Rome indeed has passed
away, but other agents and instruments of evil have taken
her place. Other beasts and pagan prophets have appeared
down to our very day. Satan himself remains "to compass
the camp of the saints about." Millions of the best lives
of our planet have within our own memory been sacrificed as
a witness to his power over the world. All of the intelligence,
civilization and even Christianity of the world have thus far
been unable to curb his power or stay his hand. What won-
der if counsels of despair prevail; if we are assured that
evil is in this world to stay; that all efforts to dislodge it
are necessarily partial and temporary; that human nature

150 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

cannot be changed; that there will always be war and hatred
and its accompanying sorrows and sins; that only deluded
optimists will ever expect sin itself to be vanquished? Over
against all such unfaith there stands the imperishable mes-
sage of these chapters. Like a bulwark they stand between
our souls and ultimate despair in the moral victory of the
Good. "And the devil was cast into the lake of fire." Evil
shall ultimately be destroyed. Nothing in the end can with-
stand the righteousness of God and the omnipotence of Jesus
Christ. ( This is the~social message of the Book of Revelation.
He who takes it and holds it fast in his heart is equipped
and prepared to face, in the spirit of unconquerable op-
position and of undying hope, the principalities and powers
that still war against the purity of our souls and the wel-
fare of mankind.

1. The Scarlet Woman (Chapter 17)

This chapter ranks in obscurity and difficulty with chap-
ters 9 and 12, and 13 and 20. There may be some
points in this chapter which cannot be cleared up to
our entire satisfaction. Yet it needs to be remembered that,
if so, these are its subordinate features. The main outline
and meaning of the chapter is plain enough. There can
be no question, for example, that the scarlet woman is the
imperial city of Rome. When the last bowl has been
emptied, the judgment of God upon Rome is complete.
It remains only to describe her fall. This is done in chap-
ters 17 and 18. In verse 18, it is expressly stated
that Rome is meant. With this the woman's name agrees
(cf. v. 5, and 14:8), her position on the seven hills (v. 9),
the designation harlot, applied to Jerusalem and Israel (as
well as to Tyre and Nineveh) in the Old Testament,
and her identification with the beast, which we have seen
stands for the imperial power of Rome. The author's pur-
pose, then, in this chapter, is to describe Rome in her double

THE DOOM OF EVIL 151

role as mistress of the world and the mother of harlots,
before her utter destruction is portrayed in detail in chap-
ter 18.

The interpretation of the woman sitting on the beast is
not difficult after chapters twelve and thirteen. The author
is here using the same traditional material, based on a myth
which has been worked over many times before it came to
its present use. It goes back, as we saw, to the chaos-
dragon of heathen mythology, which in the Old Testament
was transferred to Babylon, and again reshaped in the Jewish
apocalypses, and finally applied by the Christian writer to
explain the present and future persecution of the saints.
Rome is called a harlot because of the well-known licentious-
ness which prevailed there, which is reflected in the writings
of Paul. The many waters, as we learn from v. 15, are
many peoples. The seven hills represent the seven emperors
on whose authority the city's power is based. The names
of blasphemy refer to the image or superscription of the
deified emperor, which appeared and reappeared a thousand
times, so that the city was "full of the names"; the heads
and horns are fixed features that represent the power of
Rome against God, and the cup of abomination is only an-
other expression for "the sink of iniquity."

There are, however, two difficulties to be met in this
chapter. The first is the relation of the woman to the beast.
In verse 3, "the seven heads and the ten horns of the dragon
must represent the imperial power on which the city rests.
But at the end of the chapter (v. 16) the ten horns which
now appear as foreign kings are enemies of the woman and
bring about her overthrow." * Evidently the original figure
has been modified. The most probable explanation of this
strange conclusion of the chapter is this. As we saw, in
chapter 13, the beast was identified (in verses 3 and 15) with
one of Rome's emperors, Nero. Further, a Nero myth arose
after his death, that he had not really died at all, and that

1 Porter, p. 259ff.

152 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

he would come at any time to make war upon his enemies in
Rome who had betrayed him. Later this mythical Nero was
identified, in Christian tradition, with Anti-Christ. In chap-
ter 17, this identification is made in verse 11, an obscure
verse which will be studied later. The returning Nero, a
mythical and semi-Satanic being returns, no longer as one
of the heads (kings), but the beast himself, the embodiment
of the evil spirit of the Roman Empire, who associates with
him the (ten) nations of the world and gives them power
to assail with him the city of Rome. "It is not surprising
that the explanation of the beast is enigmatical; in symbolic
representation, the symbol and the reality are in the nature
of the case often blended. ... In this case, the beast appears
at one time to represent a single person, and again seven
(or eight) distinct persons in . succession." x Always, how-
ever, he is a person: either the Roman emperor or emperors
(typifying Rome itself), or Nero, or Nero-Antichrist. It is
often difficult to understand just how or when these are shaded
into each other.

The other difficulty relates to the chronology of the kings.8
The seven heads of the beast, we are told, represent seven
emperors (v. 10) and the beast himself (Nero) is the eighth,
though he is also a reincarnation of one of the previous seven
(v. 11). At the time that the author writes, we are told that
five of these emperors are dead, one reigns, and another is
to follow, whose reign will be brief. Then Nero-Antichrist
will appear and dominate the world for a time (12:6, 13:5)
before the coming of the Messiah. Assuming that the author
writes in the time of Domitian, for which there is strong
evidence, the question is by what system of calculation can
it be said that but five emperors have already reigned? For
whether we begin with Julius Caesar, or with Augustus, and
even if we omit the three military rulers, Galba, Otho and

1 Beckwith, p. 695.

2 See Case, "The Revelation of John," pp. 341ff ; Beckwith, 704ff.

THE DOOM OF EVIL 153

Vitellius, the count does not come out right.1 Commentators
have manipulated their mathematics in vain, and have sug-
gested the incorporation of older apocalyptical material, with-
out the requisite change in the figures. It seems not to have
occurred to them that the prophet might make a poetical use
of figures; that he was not at all concerned about mathemati-
cal nicety in computing exact dates, but was much concerned
about the question as to whether or not the deliverance for
which he looked was long to be delayed. Chronologists have
the same difficulty in Daniel which they encounter in Revela-
tion. In neither case is the apocalyptist an historian. In
both cases he is a prophet who tells a persecuted people that
deliverance is at hand. Throughout the Book of Revelation
seven is the perfect number. Why should it not be used in
this passage in this symbolic sense? If seven, then, represents
the whole period of Roman domination, the author says that
five portionl of that period have already passed, and that
the seventh 'twill be brief and that the eighth is the Nero-
Antichrist whose function it shall be to destroy the Roman
Empire and j himself to succeed to power for a short time.
The sixtlifcng) then, will be that emperor in whose time the
author writes, that is, in all probability the Emperor Domi-
tian. The whole passage is not a bit of mathematical calcula-
tion, but rather a bit of apocalyptical symbolism.

Chapter 17:1. One of the seven angels then summoned
me to see the fate of the great harlot situated on many-
waters. 2. With whom the kings of the earth have been
implicated in all manner of vice, and the people of the
earth have been intoxicated with her immoralities. 3. So
I was carried away in the rapture of the spirit into a desert
place where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which
was covered all over with idolatrous titles, and had seven
heads and ten horns, the known marks of world-rulership.
4. The woman was regally clad in purple and scarlet, and
decked with jewels, and the cup in her hand was filled with
her immoralities. 5. Her name was Babylon, the Mother
of Vice. 6. And I saw that she was drunk with the blood

1 In order, the emperors were : Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula,
Claudius, Nero (Galba, Otho, Vitellius), Vespasian, Titus, Domitian.

154 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

of the martyrs who had died for Jesus' sake. And I mar-
velled as I beheld her. 7. And the angel told me not to
wonder, for he would explain to me the hidden meaning of
the woman on the seven-headed beast. 8. The beast, he
said, once was but no longer is, upon earth. It will soon
ascend from the abyss, yet to perdition it shall go, and
all people on earth except those who are Christ's shall
wonder as they look upon the beast that comes again after
having existed once and then having disappeared. 9. Here
is the interpretation of a truly discerning mind. The
seven heads suggest the seven hills of Eome. 10. And
these in turn stand for seven kings, of which five have
passed away, one is now ruling and the seventh will follow,
whose reign will be brief. 11. Then the beast will come
whom we will reckon as the eighth although really he is but
a reincarnation of one of the seven, and he is destined for
destruction. 12. The ten horns also are ten kings although
they have no royal power as yet, but get their authority
for the brief time only in which they are associated with
the beast. 13. They have a common aim with the beast
to whom they give their allegiance. 14. These are they who
shall make war against the Lamb and be vanquished by
Him, because the Lamb is supreme and his followers are
faithful. 15. The waters on which the woman sits stand
for all nations. 16. And the ten horns are the kings who
in alliance with the beast shall turn against the harlot
Eome and utterly destroy her. 17. For God made these
kings and the nations which they represent to have one
mind in the matter and to surrender their rulership to the
beast until the decrees of God are fulfilled. 18. As for the
woman, you have seen that she is that great city which reigns
over the kings of the earth.

Notes v. 1 It is appropriate that one of the angels that
had the bowls should make this announcement since what fol-
lows is an elaboration of the vision of the seven bowls. Harlot,
(see Isa. 1:21; Ezek. 16:15; Hos. 2:4). Upon waters, cf.
French, "Sur mer," and see Jer. 51:13. v. 2 So Tyre and
Nineveh. (Isa. 23:17; Jer. 51:7; Nah. 3:4; Rev. 14:8.)
v. 3 Scarlet, not referring to the blood of martyrs, but a
sign of might. Names of blasphemy, see on 13:1. v. 4 The
imagery may be suggested by Jer. 51:7. v. 5 This may refer
to a similar custom among Roman courtesans, who wore head-
bands indicating their character. Mystery, i.e., something hid-
den. Suggested by the "mysteries" of Greek and Roman

THE DOOM OF EVIL 155

religions, (cf. I. Tim. 3:9, 16.) The name is to be under-
stood mystically, v. 6 Here the sin of Rome reaches its
climax. For the phrase, cf. Isa. 34:7, 49:26. Martyrs, or
better translated, witnesses, or those whose testimony may
be relied on. It is not certain that the word means martyr
in the New Testament, although it occurs (2:13, 17:6; Acts
22:20) in cases where steadfastness led to death, v. 7 The
mystery which the angel explains includes not only the woman
and the beast, but the whole of the following chapters, i. e.,
the doom of Rome. v. 8 See on chapter 13, vv. 3, 8. v. 9
See chapter 13:18. For mountain, in the sense of hill, see
Matt. 5:1, 15:29; John 6:15. w. 10-11 cf. introduction to
chapter 13 and to this section. For fallen in the sense of
die, cf. II Sam. 3:38. Goeth. into perdition, the destruction
of evil is insisted upon everywhere in the book. vv. 12, 13
One hour, i.e., a short time. Ten horns, derived directly
from Dan. 7:7, 24, although differently applied. There they
stand for a series of kings in the last world-empire (repre-
sented in this passage by the seven heads). Here they
symbolize not Roman rulers but kings, who receive their
power from Nero -Antichrist to war against Rome. The
number ten symbolizes the completeness of all earthly nations
subservient to Anti-Christ. V. 14 is a rhetorical parenthesis
anticipating, as frequently in this book, the final outcome.
Note once more the frequent ascription to Christ of titles
belonging to God, (cf. Deut. 10:17; Ps. 136:3; Dan. 2:47,
11:36). Those that are with him. The reading of the Re-
vised Version is correct. The saints belong to the overcoming
army of Christ (although not mentioned in 19 :llff ) : "Those
with him shall conquer because they are elect and called and
faithful." v. 15 For waters as symbol of peoples, cf. Isa.
8:7; Jer. 47:2. v. 16 (cf. Ps. 27:2; Jer. 10:25; Mic. 3:3;
Zeph. 3:3). Chapter 18 is an amplification of this verse,
v. 17 Will, better translated mind in the revised Version, and
refers to God and not to the beast. The nations are to re-
main subject to the beast, until the final battle is won

156 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

(19:19ff). Rome's destruction by the beast refers to civil
war as an agent of God for the destruction of his enemies (cf.
Ezek. 38:21; Hag. 2:22; Zech. 14:13. cf. also Dan. 7:8, 24ff.).
See also II Thess. 2:3-8 for a description of the current
Christian conception of the destruction to be wrought by
Anti-Christ.

2. The Fall of Rome (Chapters 18, 19:1-5)

In this section we have a description in plain prophetic
language of the downfall of Rome. Here are no cryptic
figures of speech, no hidden allusions, no obscure passages.
It is a clear, consistent and eloquent account of the terrible and
final overthrow of the great Imperial City. With its close,
Rome as the agent of Satan vanishes forever from the scene.
The ruin of Rome is announced in seven distinct utterances.
First, an angel proclaims the certainty of her downfall (w.
1-3). Next, a voice from heaven warns God's people to flee
from her allurements and from the sure judgment which is
about to befall her (vv. 4-5). Again, the same voice calls down
vengeance upon her because of her continued sin (w. 6-8).
Then, the prophet describes the lament which the kings of
the earth will utter when they behold her destruction (vv.
9-19). In startling contrast to this, the rejoicing of God's ser-
vants are invoked, because of his vengeance upon their enemy
(v. 20). Then, Rome's disappearance is typified in a great mill-
stone which a strong angel hurls into the sea (w. 21-24).
Finally, the work is ended and a loud chorus in heaven cele-
brates the completion of God's righteous judgment (19:1-5).

The model for this description of the destruction of Rome
was naturally similar passages from the Old Testament in
which the prophets describe the downfall of ancient pagan
cities. Readers will refer to such passages as Isa. 13:19-22,
21:9, 34:8-15; Jer. 51:8, 31-58; Ezek. chapters 27ff. The
Babylon of the author's time was not dissimilar to the ancient
Babylon which aroused the indignant invective of the

THE DOOM OF EVIL 157

prophets of the Old Testament. George Adam Smith thus
describes the place which Babylon occupies in Scripture:
"Throughout the extent of Bible history from Genesis to
Revelation one city remains which in fact and symbol is
execrated as the enemy of God and the stronghold of evil.
In Genesis we are called to see its foundation as of the first
city that wandering men established and the quick ruin which
fell upon its impious builders. By the prophets we hear it
cursed as the oppressor of God's people, the temptress of
nations, full of cruelty and wantonness. In the New Testa-
ment, its character and curse are transferred to Rome, and
New Babylon stands over against New Jerusalem. Babylon
is the atheist of the Old Testament as she is the Anti-Christ
of the New. Her haughtiness and secure pride are the fruit
of an atheistic self-sufficiency. 'I am, and there is none be-
sides me. I shall not sit as a widow; neither shall I know
the loss of children' are the words which the prophet puts
upon the lips of the city. The same spirit inspires the new
Babylon of the Apocalypse, 'She saith in her heart, I sit a
queen and am no widow and shall in no sense see mourning.' " '
Parallel to the doom pronounced upon ancient Babylon is
the judgment visited here upon Rome. It is the last ap-
pearance of Babylon in Scripture.

Once more, we must render account of the inspired faith
of the prophet which, in a day when Rome was apparently
secure and its ruin was by no means imminent, could not
only clearly see but could also exult in the downfall of the
city as if it were something which already had taken place.
Centuries were to pass before this prophecy was literally
fulfilled; but so sure of it is the prophet that he can cast
it all in the present tense, and can call upon the servants of
God to endure, as if they, as well as he, could see with their
own eyes the picture of the desolation of the city of the
Caesars.

Once more we need to remind ourselves of the eternal
'Isa. II, p. 188ff. Quoted in Scott, p. 275.

158 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

message of this dirge over Rome which runs like a solemn
refrain all through the book and here rises to sublime heights
of inspired eloquence. For Babylon never dies, until Satan
himself is destroyed. As long as evil remains, it will be
incorporated on earth in some visible embodiment of its
power. The conscience of the Christian church will always
confront some Babylon. If it accepts the message of Revela-
tion, it will confront its Babylon in the exalted mood of this
chapter. What a wonderful repetition of it we have witnessed
in our day! No one will be able to read this book for years
to come without thinking of the utter desolation of that great,
proud empire which only a few years since stood like a
monster with drawn sword above Europe while all who beheld
it said: "Who is able to make war with him"?" Once more
and in no less terrible fashion than in the ancient days the
judgment of God has been visited upon the embodiment in
history of the principle of evil. No one imagines that the
process will end here. The New Babylon will continue to
rise from the ashes of the old until He hath put all things
under his feet. Whenever the faith of men is tried; when-
ever their courage is put to the test; whenever arrogant evil
seems to mock the good and to flourish its triumph in the
face of righteousness, this chapter will constitute the ground
of the Social Hope of Christians. With the faith of this
seer, they will confront each new manifestation of evil and
utter this prophetic dirge over it, "Babylon the great is fallen,
is fallen."

Chapter 18:1. Afterwards I saw come down from heaven
another great and powerful angel whose brightness lit up
the earth. 2. And he cried with a loud voice saying, The
mighty Babylon is fallen, and now she is but the haunt of
demons, the den of all foul spirits, the cage of every un-
clean and loathsome bird. 3. For all nations have par-
ticipated in her vice, and all rulers have been corrupted
by her, and profiteers have grown rich through her ill-
gotten spoils. 4, 5. And I heard another voice bidding God's
people to leave her so as not to share in her heaped-up
sins and in the punishment which God will not forget to

THE DOOM OF EVIL 159

inflict. 6. Yea, may she receive what she has meted out
to others, only in double-measure, a double draught of her
own medicine. 7. Let her misery be as great as the parade
of her glory and luxury. She imagines that she is secure
and happy as a queen. 8. But in a day's time lamentation
and death shall come upon her and she shall be burned with
fire, for strong is the God who judges her. 9. And the
rulers who lived in luxury and sin because of her shall
weep over her destruction as they see her burn. 10. Stand-
ing at a distance, afraid of the conflagration, they cry out
in sorrow, saying, Alas, for the great city whose doom has
come in one brief hour. 11. And merchants mourned the
loss of her trade, 12, 13. in all manner of luxuries and food-
stuffs and cattle and of the traffic in slaves and the souls
of men. 14. And vanished are the accumulations of thy
soul's desire, all thy pretty adornments have gone, never
to be recovered. 15, 16, 17. The traders in these wares, I
say, mourned over the city that was once so rich and in
an hour has lost all her wealth. And sea-captains and
sailors likewise 18. bewailed the destruction of the city as
they beheld its burning from afar, 19. and lamented the
loss of the city whose trade had made them rich. 20. But
let heaven and all its saints gloat over her, because God
hath avenged you on her. 21. Then a strong angel lifted
a huge boulder, and flung it into the sea, saying, Thus shall
Babylon be hurled into the depths never to be seen again,
22. and no more music shall be heard there, and no crafts-
men shall toil there, and the hum of labor shall not be
heard, 23. and there will be no light, nor voice of merry-
makers, for though the magnates of the earth traded with
thee, thou didst corrupt the nations, 24. and she was the
great slayer of prophets and saints. Chapter 19 : 1. After that
I heard a sound like the shout of a great host ascribing praise
to God, 2. because of his just judgment of Rome for her
corruption and persecution of his servants. 3. Again they
repeated their Halleluia as the smoke of the city continued
perpetually to ascend. 4. And the four and twenty elders
and the four living creatures joined in the chorus of praise.
5. And in response to a heavenly command, all the people
of God join in a mighty Halleluia.

Notes 18:1 Power This may mean either having great au-
thority (so R. V.) or power to utter his message so that
all might hear it. For the last clause of the verse, see Ezek.
43:2. v. 2 For this description, cf. Isa. 13:19-22, 34:11-15;
Jer. 50 :39, 51 :37 ; Zeph. 2 :15. v. 3 It is probably a mistake
to find in this verse and chapter proof of the ascetic ten-

160 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF BEVELATION

dencies of the author. It is not the possession of wealth
against which he inveighs, but its abuse. Thus, the word
"abundance" (A. V.) should be translated "power" (i.e.,
arrogant luxuriousness). v. 4 (See Jer. 50:8, 51:6, 45; Isa.
48:20, 52:11.) v. 5 (Jer. 51:9; Ezra 9:6.) v. 6 (Jer. 50:15,
29, 51:24, 56; Ps. 137:8; Isa. 40:2; Jer. 16:18, 17:18.) v. 7
(Isa. 47:7-9; Jer. 50:29). The hatred expressed in this
chapter, as throughout in the Bible, is neither personal nor
racial but is moral hatred directed against the evil of
which, in the Old Testament the pagan nations, and in
the present passage Rome, are the visible embodiment. In
this sense the motive is essentially and fundamentally Chris-
tian. It would be in the interest of Christianity to-day that
we should recover some of its robustness and directness, v. 9
(cf. Ezek. 26:16, 18, 27:5, 28-36.) v. 10 (Isa. 34:10; Ezek.
28:18.) w. 12-14. The list here is in imitation of Ezek. 27:5-
24 (cf. Ezek. 16:9-13). The author's fondness for the number
seven, in groups of three and four, can be detected in this
enumeration. The merchants lament not only the loss of
trade, but the waste of the articles themselves, v. 17 Perhaps
suggested by Ezek. 27:29, 32. (See Ps. 107:23.) v. 20
Illustrates the author's fondness for parenthesis and con-
trast, as throughout the book. v. 21 Suggested by Jer. 51 :63 ;
Neh. 9:11. v. 22 (cf. Jer. 25:10; Isa. 24:8; Jer. 7:34, 16:9;
Ezek. 26:13.) The abrupt changes from the second to the
third person (cf. vv. 14, 15) are a common occurrence in
the Old Testament, (cf. Ps. 52:4-6, 62:1-4, 81:10-12; Ezek.
32:11-12; Amos 6:3-7.) Chapter 19:1-5 This passage plainly
belongs to what precedes rather than to what follows. It
looks backward and not forward. In verse 6, however, the
new subject is introduced, v. 3 (cf. Isa. 34:10.) w. 4, 5 Com-
bine Pss. 134:1 and 115:13.

3. The Victory of Christ over the Beast (Chapter 19:6-21)

We have seen how it is the author's method to set over
against the dark picture of evil on earth the glowing descrip-

THE DOOM OF EVIL 161

tion of the joy, the triumph and the praise of "the heavenly
host." And it is in proportion as we imitate the practice of
this inspired book that we shall share in its hope and catch
the spirit of its immortal courage. It is as we think of
ourselves as "encompassed about" with a great cloud of
faithful and triumphant witnesses that we shall receive
strength to run the race which is set before us. The vision
of them keeps breaking over the mind of our writer and the
sound of their music penetrates his heart. This fact con-
stitutes an imperishable part of the social message of the
book. There is no separation between the church militant
and the church triumphant. The struggle on earth is watched
with breathless interest by the redeemed; and the strugglers
on earth are sustained by the presence of those who have
already come out of great tribulation, and in a real sense are
fighting the battle with them and for them.

The first outbreak of this heavenly music, as we have seen,
looks backward and celebrates the downfall of Rome. But
with verse 6 there comes a change. Rome is done for, her
dirge has been sung, the forces of evil that lie behind Rome
must next be dealt with. So we have first this hymn in
anticipation of the approaching triumph of Christ and his
saints over the beast, the Anti-Christ. This chorus is sung
in verses 6 to 9. It looks forward to what is about to happen.
The relation of God to his people and of Christ to his ser-
vants in the figure of marriage is so common both in the
Old Testament and in the New, and it has interwoven itself
so intimately in the language of Christian devotion that it
requires no comment for its understanding and appreciation.
Over against the faithless harlot is placed the shining figure
of the faithful bride of Christ. The bride in the New Testa-
ment is variously interpreted as the individual, the church,
and, in the closing chapter of this book, the whole beloved
community, the New Jerusalem. Just as Jerusalem and the
people of God are closely identified in the Old Testament, so
in the apocalyptist's vision of the renewed world, the figure

I

K

162 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

designating those who compose the community is easily trans-
ferred to the community itself. In using this intimate lan-
guage to describe the final union of Christ and his church, the
author is, as every reader of the Gospel knows, but reproducing
the very mind of Christ Himself.

Verses 9 and 10 furnish a sort of transition to what is to
follow. Precisely as the angel in chapter 10 (v. 5:61:.) gave a
solemn assurance of the outcome before the trumpets were
sounded, so here we have a promise of victory before the
last great battle is joined; and in verse 10 we find the prophet
overwhelmed by the vision of the redeemd and filled with awe
at the thought of the impending shock of the conflict between
Christ and Satan.

The passage from verse 10 to verse 17 gives us an im-
mortal picture of the conquering Christ. As we have already
noted, this description of Christ as a warrior is an important
and much-needed supplement to the picture of the meek
and lowly Jesus as found in the Gospels. A great deal of
incredulity which is felt, even if unexpressed, concerning the
adequacy of the Christian ideal to the needs of the world as
it is, centers at this point. The gentle and compassionate
Christ appears as an inadequate ideal and influence in the
midst of the blood and iron of this actual world of history
and events. So also does the Christ of suffering and sacrifice.
"It is not a suffering but a militant leader, we are told, to
whom men must look for their salvation. It is not by suffer-
ing that God conquers death but by fighting. There may be
sufferings, but they do not of themselves bring victory. The
symbol of the crucifix jars on our spirit. We cannot accept
the Christian crucifix and pray to a pitiful God." ' Mr. Wells,
and they who feel like him, have but to turn to this passage
of the book to find a conception of Christ entirely adequate
to their ideas of a militant and conquering leader. Let it be
remembered that this picture reproduces the masterful Christ
of the Gospels too often overlooked by those who trust to

3 H. G. Wells, God, the Invisible King, pp. 100-102.

THE DOOM OF EVIL 163

tradition for their conception of Him rather than to the
narratives of the Gospels themselves which give us many a
glimpse of his heroic qualities, and to the idea of Him to be
found in the Epistles, where He is described again and again
as the Captain of our Salvation, putting all things under his
feet and conquering every foe. Indeed, this passage in the
Book of Revelation gives us precisely that foundation for
the Social Hope to which, by the effort of their own minds,
unaided by revelation, these earnest thinkers themselves have
arrived. Not only does it give us the picture of a champion
riding forth to challenge the enemy of mankind, but it invests
Him with the titles and prerogatives of God Himself. Nothing
short of this will answer. He must be King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. He must indeed be the invisible King, and
such the prophet proclaims Him to be. This conception of
itself spells ultimate moral victory.

The final passage of the chapter (verses 17 to 22) an-
nounces the final overthrow of the principles of evil of which
Rome was the immediate, visible and temporary manifesta-
tion. The struggle itself is not described in any detail. Christ
and Anti-Christ come finally face to face (verse 19) ; all is
over. Victory happens infallibly, inevitably, automatically.
The beast himself, and the false prophet, the priests of the
pagan cultus, are sent headlong into the brimstone lake. Not
only is Rome done for, but the Anti-Christ, the evil genius of
Rome, is destroyed. We have the completion of the old myth
found in chapter 12, where we might have looked for an ac-
count of the victory of the Messiah after he had grown to
manhood. What is more, we have the completion of the
prophet's idea, which is that evil itself, and not merely a
temporary manifestation of it, is destined to be destroyed.
This is the root of the message of the book.

Let us understand this, and the terrible vindictiveness of
this language can give us no offense. Without doubt the spirit
is revengeful, but so ought the spirit of a true soul to be
against evil. "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." (Ps. 97:10.)

N

164 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

Remorseless hatred of evil is a sign of sainthood. The blood-
thirsty language is doubtless drawn from Jewish sources and
is not tuned to our Christian consciousness. But it must be
remembered that to be Christian is not to be tolerant in the
face of wrong or to acquiesce meekly in the presence or con-
tinuance of unrighteousness. It may offend our taste to think
of such a supper of God, but the idea underlying it is es-
sentially, if terribly, true. It needs to be remembered that
the language is always figurative describing only the consum-
ing wrath of God.

Chapter 19: 6. And I heard a confused rumbling and
roaring of the voice of multitudes ascribing praise to God.
7, 8. Let us hail Him and be glad, for the hour set for the
marriage banquet of the Lamb has arrived and the bride
herself is arrayed and ready. 9. And the angel told me
of the blessedness of those invited to this marriage feast,
and that these are the genuine words of God. 10. And
when I fell at his feet to worship him, he said, No; for
I am but a fellow-servant with you and your brothers who
are witnesses of Jesus. God only is to be worshipped. And
this witness of Jesus is the very breath of prophecy. 11.
And out of the opened heavens I saw a heavenly rider,
named Faithful and True, on a white horse, and his judg-
ments are just and his warfare is righteous. 12. His eyes
blazed like fire, and he wore many crowns, and he had
a mysterious name known only to Himself. 13. His garment
was blood-red, and "The Word of God" is his name. 14.
And troops of heavenly cavalry in white followed Him.
15. Out of his mouth came words sharp as a sword with
which to smite the nations, and He shall rule them with an
iron hand and execute the wrath of God, 16. for He bears
the name King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 17, 18. And
an angel in the sun summoned the vultures to assemble for
the carrion-feast of the bodies of kings and captains, and
horses and slaves, and high and low. 19. And then I
saw the beast and his armies in battle array against Christ
and his host. 20. And the beast was captured and the
false prophet that deceived the people and caused them to
worship the image of the emperor; and both of them were
cast headlong into the brimstone lake, 21. while the rest
were slain with the sword, and the birds were glutted with
their flesh.

Notes v. 7 (See Isa. 54:1-6; Jer. 31:32; Ezek. 16:8; Matt.
25:1-10; Eph. 5:32.) v. 8 Righteousness means righteous

THE DOOM OF EVIL 165

conduct, purity, v. 10 This verse (as well as the last clause in
verse 8) is regarded as an interpolation by many scholars. It
is duplicated in 22:8, 9. If the prophet were forbidden to
worship the angel here, it is hard to see why he should do so
there. The last clause of v. 10 is obscure. The work of
testifying to Jesus, is the spirit of Jesus at work in the Chris-
tian; and this is the inspiration of those who prophesy for
Him (see I Pet. 1:11; I Cor. 12:10; II Pet. 1:21). Thus
the angel and the prophet are fellow-servants of Christ.
V. llff Some of the features of the Messiah may have been
suggested by the young sun-god of the early myths. Others
are taken from Isa. 63:1-6 and Isa. 11:1-5. v. 12 The idea
of a secret name has been discussed in 2:17. There was a
current belief in the marvelous power of such a name. See
Ecclesiasticus 47:18 and the Prayer of Manassas 3. Many
crowns signify universal rulership. The Word of G-od doubt-
less refers to the Logos of the Fourth Gospel, but it has little
relation to it and is here used in a different sense. This is
probably not a later attempt to decide what the secret name
was. It is an addition to that idea. Dipped in blood, i. e.
of his enemies. (See Isa. 63:1.) There is here no reference
to the Cross, v. 15 (See Isa. 11:4; II Esdras 13:9-11, 27-38.)
w. 17, 18 (See Ezek. 39:17-20.)

4. The Destruction of Satan (Chapters 20:1-10)

Rome has fallen. The beast and the false prophet who
were the incarnation of the wickedness and pagan idolatries £\^
of Rome have been captured and destroyed. It remains to
reckon with Satan himself, who is back of Rome (chapter 12),
and from whom the beast has received his authority (chapter
13:2). Not until Satan himself has been destroyed will
victory be complete. This thoroughgoing vindication of \ |
righteousness constitutes the moral greatness of this book.
The author carries the conflict back from temporary mani-
festations of evil to its ultimate sources and roots. Root and

166 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

branch, evil is to be destroyed. Chapter 20, one of the most
important and difficult and fateful chapters of Revelation,
has this for its essential theme: the overthrow of Satan him-
self, the author and source of all evil.

Let the reader understand this fact, and the place which
the chapter thus occupies in the thought of the author and in
the development of his theme, and there will not be confusion
in its interpretation. The one purpose of this chapter is to
describe the destruction of Satan and the deliverance and
reward of those who have opposed him at the risk and cost
of their lives, precisely as the purpose of chapter 18 was to
describe the downfall of Rome, and of chapter 19 the over-
throw of the beast.

In the treatment of his subject, the author uses three dif-
ferent sets of material. First, he employs the old myths which
we found wrought into the fabric of chapter 12. Next, he
uses familiar Old Testament and later Jewish traditions with
regard to the Messianic kingdom which all Jews expected
would be set up on earth. Finally, there are ideas of his
own, which are not to be found elsewhere in the Bible. These
three sets of material are all arranged and governed by the
single idea which the author holds before him in this chapter:
"the destruction of that old serpent which is the Devil," and
the deliverance and reward of the witnesses of Jesus.

In the first place, then, the author goes back to the old
myths. We should expect this, since the author has already
shown in chapter 12 that in dealing with the aboriginal
sources of evil, he bases his description upon ideas common
to all mythologies. The notion that evil powers are under
the earth probably goes back for its origin to earthquakes
and volcanoes; or, back of that, to the binding of the chaos
dragon, which signified the setting of fixed bounds to the
waters, "so that the earth can be freed from its ravages and
can produce life." * This idea, reproduced in one form and
another in different mythologies, found its way without doubt

1 See Porter, p. 276.

THE DOOM OF EVIL 167

into Jewish apocalypses, and was made use of in this book.
Only here, the binding of the dragon takes place "not at or
near the creation of the world," but at the re-creation of the
world, the setting up of God's kingdom on earth. Thus the
author turns the old myth to his own use.

In the old mythologies we also have the idea that the dragon
was bound, breaks loose again for a time, but subsequently is
retaken and destroyed. In the Persian mythology the dragon
Azhi Dahaka is conquered and kept bound for a period but
afterwards becomes free again and is slain.1 This idea is
reflected, if it is not reproduced, in certain Bible passages.
A second conflict with heathen powers is found in Ezek. 38 :39.
(cf. also Isa. 24:21; II Pet. 2:4; Jude v. 6; Thess. 2:7-8.)
Our author is simply utilizing old mythical ideas for his own
special purpose, which is to affirm the final destruction of
Satan.

In addition to this mythical material, the author uses, also,
the familiar Jewish traditions about the coming of the
Messianic age. All readers of the Old Testament prophets
know that they expected and foretold the setting up on earth
of an ideal kingdom in which the unity and splendor of the
reign of David should be reproduced with the Messiah as its
ruler. As time passed, however, and this kingdom was not
realized on earth, there was a tendency to idealize, even to
etherealize, it (see Isa. 52:11, 60:10-14). In the minds of
expectant writers, it took on heavenly attributes and features,
and there was a tendency to detach it altogether from the
earth. The kingdom became transcendental and universal, its
realm embraced new heavens and earth, and its people were
the risen saints of God. Between these two, reconciling them,
and bringing them together in a single conception, we find in
the later Jewish writings the teaching that the first of these
two kingdoms, the earthly and historical kingdom, is to be
temporary in duration, the historical prelude, as it were, to
the eternal and heavenly kingdom. The Messiah will be the

1Beckwith, p. 736.

168 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

head of the first, and God of the last of these kingdoms. This
conception is found in the Old Testament apocryphal books.
See II Esdras 7:2811, where the earthly kingdom is four
hundred years long. The author of Revelation has reproduced
this tradition for his own purpose. He gives the figure 1000
as the duration of the earthly kingdom, possibly suggested by
a combination of Gen. 2 :2 and Ps. 90 :4. Like all other num-
bers in Revelation, its significance is symbolical and simply
denotes perfection.

Finally, the author inserts an idea in this chapter which
is all his own, and is not found elsewhere in the Bible. It is
the idea contained in verses 4-6, which have been called
"fateful verses which have produced one of the least fruitful
chapters in the long history of human thought." 1 In these
verses, upon the basis of traditional material which has just
been described, the author advances a Christian idea which is
wholly new with him, that Christ is to rule on earth for a
period of one thousand years with his saints, after which
Satan is to resume his sway until the final judgment and
the final resurrection. "These few verses standing alone in
Biblical utterances, and apparently deriving their formal con-
tents from external sources, have given occasion for con-
troversy running through the ages, and for vast practical
delusions." 2 And to-day, upon the basis of these three verses,
there are thousands of people who believe that this literal
millennium is to take place, when a visible Christ is to set up
his kingdom on earth and reign for a thousand glorious years
with his saints.

It is not our purpose to inquire into the genesis, the history,
or the moral value of this literal millennial idea. But it must
be pointed out that such an interpretation of these verses is
wholly foreign to the whole method and spirit of this book.
From beginning to end, the author's purpose has been to
describe in poetic and symbolical and prophetic language the

1 Porter, p. 277.
*Beckwith, p. 737.

THE DOOM OF EVIL 169

eternal and spiritual truth that evil shall be overthrown, and
that God and his people shall triumph. He is doing this for
a very practical purpose. He is not seeking to plot out the
remote future, or give us either the chronology or the
geography of the New Jerusalem, but rather to steel the hearts
of Christian martyrs at a particular time and for a particular
purpose. He uses in his preaching all the available material
that he can find. Some of this we have been able to trace
and some of it we cannot trace. Behind this idea, for example,
of a temporary reign of Christ on earth with his saints,
which, as we have seen, stands all by itself in explicit utter-
ance, there may run a Christian tradition unknown to us,
reflected in such Pauline passages as I Cor. 15:20-28, 6:2, 3.
(See Matt. 19:28.) It has even been suggested that our
author, upon the basis of this tradition, himself believed that
such an earthly future millennium would actually take place.
No one can answer that question definitely, either one way
or the other. The whole spiritual interpretation of the book,
however, plus the fact that there is no known previous Chris-
tian tradition to support it, argues strongly against the sup-
position that he did. In either case, his aim in this chapter is
not "the revelation of a chronological program in the world's
history," or the prediction of a future era, but something far
more practical and spiritual and real. His aim is to set forth
to those early Christians in a dramatic way, the spiritual
truth that a special spiritual reward awaits those who are
faithful unto death. Precisely as in the earlier chapters that
reward is described in terms of a new name, or crown, and a
permanent place in the Temple of God, so in this closing
chapter it is described as reigning with Christ in glory and
security. For that purpose those verses were written, and
that is their use and value to us to-day. Whether or not our
author believed that there would be any such literal and future
millennium (and the strong presumption is that he did not),
"we ourselves ought certainly to value it only for the dis-
tinctively Christian truth which it images forth, namely, that

170 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF KEVELATION

the conquest of evil and real ralership in this world belong
to Christ and to those who truly belong to Him."1 The es-
sential truth and meaning of these verses both to the author
and to ourselves is contained in the Beatitude of Jesus :

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

As for the ideas of the final judgment, and the second
death and resurrection, with which the chapter closes, these
are taken freely from familiar Jewish apocalyptical writings.
The description of Satan's final effort to assert himself is a
favorite theme in such writings, and the notion of a divine
account of men's deeds on earth according to which they are
to be judged is found both in the Old Testament and in
later Jewish books. The idea of restoring to life some who
had died is also common in the later apocalypses. Thus in
the Book of Enoch we read (I En. 51:1) :

In those days shall the earth also give back that which
has been entrusted to it, and Sheol shall give back that
which it has received, and hell shall give back that which
it owes.

A general and final resurrection and a fiery torment for the
wicked are familiar notions of Jewish writings, reflection of
which are to be found in the Gospels.

This chapter, in its message to its own time, to our time
and for all time, takes its place beside the other great chapters
in this book. It is the same spiritual message which lays the
foundation of our Social Hope and nerves us, as it did those
early Christians, for our work as faithful witnesses of Jesus.
First, it tells us that old Satan is going to be bound; evil,
that is, is going to be controlled, and when it is, the world
will seem like Paradise restored, it will seem as if the kingdom
had come, as if the millennium had dawned. It is a description
of a temporary flourishing of righteousness, temporary be-
cause Satan is only bound and not destroyed. The thousand

1 Porter, p. 280.

}

THE DOOM OF EVIL 171

years express no period of time. They express an idea. The
author might have used four hundred or seven hundred or
twelve hundred or any other sacred number; but the number
makes no difference. The point is, so long as evil is con-
trolled but not destroyed, the freedom from struggle will
be temporary, and not eternal. After the respite is over,
then evil will break out again. There will be a recrudescence
of wickedness. Right again will be on the scaffold and
wrong on the throne. It is not an easy victory, that of right
against wrong, of God against Satan. He is not to be
bound all at once. He may seem to be down, but he gets up
again. We may seem to have him fast, but he will break
loose once more. Is that true or is it not? We see it in
history. Is there any better or truer way of interpreting the
awful days of these past years than as a fresh eruption of
Satan? We thought we had him down. We were going along
so nicely. We were getting rich so fast. We had everything
we wanted. We knew all there is to know. We had become
so cultured, so wise, so self-sufficient, it looked as if we
were on the borderland of perfection. Then, Hell broke
loose; the devil escaped. In such a time, let us remember
the immortal hope that is held forth in this chapter, which
does full justice to the power of evil — the hope that one day
Satan will be cast into the lake of fire where the beast and
the false prophet are, and will remain there forever and ever,
Amen. The chapter tells us that if we would reign with
Christ, we must suffer with Him; if we would sit down with
Him in his throne, let us overcome, even as He overcame.
In a world still in the grip of evil and under Satan's sway,
there remains the possibility of being faithful unto death,
and so becoming priests of God and of Christ and reigning
with Him in security and peace. The message of this chapter
confirms and fulfils the message of the entire book. It promises
the ultimate extinction of evil, and the sure blessedness of
those who endure. Let us lift our eyes to that consummation
and fix them firmly upon it. Not Satan bound, but Satan

172 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

destroyed, is the ultimate purpose of God. "And the begin-
nings of that experience are now. The overcoming- Christ is
with us, and will dwell with us by the might of his spirit." *

Chapter 20:1. Then I saw an angel come down from
heaven having the key to the abyss and a great chain.
2. And he laid hold of the dragon, that is, Satan, bound
him, and 3. cast him into the abyss and locked him up
there for a thousand years, after which he must have free-
dom for a last brief period. 4. In contrast to the fate of
Satan, I saw many thrones and they which sat on them
were those who had suffered death for the gospel's sake.
They sat now as judges, and their special reward was to
share for the thousand years in the reign of Christ. 5.
The rest of the dead were not restored to life until the
thousand years were passed. 6. Blessed therefore are those
that share in this first resurrection, for they will never
taste death again, but will continue for the thousand years
as priests of God and of Christ. 7. But when the thou-
sand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison
and 8, 9. shall assemble the remote nations of the earth in
a numberless multitude for a final assault upon the city
and people of God. But fire from God consumed them
utterly 10. and Satan was cast down into the brimstone lake
where the beast and false prophet are, to suffer eternal
torment. 11. Then I had a vision of a God on a great white
throne. From his presence earth and sea fled so far that
they were no more to be found. 12. And I saw all the dead
stand before God while their books were opened and they
were judged by their deeds written in the books. And an-
other book, even the book of life, was also opened. 13.
And sea and death and hell delivered up their dead to be
judged. 14,15. And death and hell were themselves cast"
into the lake of fire. And if any one's name was not found
recorded in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake
of fire, which is the second death.

Notes 20:1 For the key to the abyss, see 9:1. v. 3 Sealed
(See Dan. 6:17; Prayer of Manas. 4: Matt. 27:66.) v. 4
Suggested by Dan. 7:9, 10, 22. The martyred saints sit on
the thrones and judge the world. Judgment means the func-
tion of judging, (cf. Lk. 22:30; Matt. 19:28; I Cor. 6:2.)
Actual martyrs are here meant, v. 5 The rest All except the
martyrs; righteous and unrighteous alike. These are dis-
tinguished in vv. 12ff. Only the martyrs share in the glory

1 Charles Brown, Heavenly Visions, pp. 247-248.

THE DOOM OF EVIL 173

of Christ's reign. Their resurrection comes first. The general
resurrection follows, v. 6 Priests (See 1:6, 5:10; Isa. 61:6.)
v. 8 Such a general onslaught of nations is described in F>zek.
38-39, and II Esdras 13 :5ff. The names Gog and Magog oc-
cur in Ezekiel and probably go back to an earlier tradition.
It is the author's own idea to represent Satan as leading them
in this final attack. And God Himself destroys Satan, whereas
in chapter 19 Christ overthrows the beast. Note again the
interchange of the future and past tenses, w. 8, 9 Four
corners of the earth (cf. 7:1; Isa. 11:12). v. 9 Camp So
Ex. 16:13; Deut. 23:14, not to be distinguished in meaning
from "city." An earthly Jerusalem is meant. For destruction
by fire, cf. Ezek. 39:6; 38:22. vv. llff This judgment scene
follows closely Matt. 25:31-46; Rom. 14:10; II Cor. 5:10; II
Esdras 7:33ff. v. 11 Throne (cf. Dan. 7:9; Isa. 6:1.) The
existing earth is removed (II Pet. 3:10-13) to give place to
the new world, v. 12 (See II Cor. 5:10.) A bodily resurrec-
tion is meant. On book of life, see 3:5. Works means their
whole spiritual being and activity. So in 14:13. v. 13 Death
and hell (See 1:18, 6:8.) v. 14 God's servants are to be
delivered from the fear of death. (Heb. 2:15; I. Cor. 15:26.)
V. 14 The first death is ordinary physical death. Consign-
ment to the lake of fire is here spoken of as a new (second)
sort of death.

CHAPTER XIII

' THE BLESSED CONSUMMATION

Revelation, Chapters 21, 22

WITH the close of chapter 20, the last word has been
spoken concerning the doom of evil. Every last
vestige of it has been destroyed. It needs to be borne in mind,
however, that this has been no easy victory. The long, hard
struggle with Rome, with the beast, with Satan, has stretched
through the Book of Revelation from beginning to end. The
full and entire resources of God, of Christ, and of their
servants and followers have been needed to put an end to
evil; and the time required has tested the patience and en-
durance of the people of God. Here Revelation brings to us
a much-needed social message. The trouble with workers for
righteousness is that they expect a too speedy and too easy
victory. They grow weary in well-doing because their efforts
are not rewarded soon enough. They make up their minds
in advance when they feel the end should come, and if it does
not come, lose heart. This book teaches us otherwise. It tells
us that potentially the victory has already been won; but it
also tells us that actually it is a long way off. It bids us
prepare for a long journey so that we shall not be disap-
pointed if we do not arrive too soon. A journey is no longer
than we make it in our minds. It is all according to the way
we pitch our expectations. A great moral need in our day
is the proper moral perspective. Revelation gives us that
perspective, and this is not the least of the book's contribu-
tions to our equipment for social work.

Neither can it be said that the spiritual prophecy of this

174

THE BLESSED CONSUMMATION 175

book has failed of fulfilment. It is true that Rome did not
fall within the lifetime of the author. But fall at length it
did, and many a Rome has fallen since. It is true that no
visible Anti-Christ appeared in the prophet's day. But the
Nero-spirit was slain by the Spirit of Christ who assumed the
control of the on-coming centuries. It is true that the end
has not yet come. But it is also true that we have sufficient
proof in history of the vindication of righteousness and the
ruin of evil to assure us of the moral nature of that end
when it shall come. The faith of the prophet has been
abundantly fulfilled. Two thousand years of proof should
be sufficient to cause us to embrace and cherish this faith in
the struggles which still lie before us.

With the condemnation of evil behind him, our author has
only to describe the salvation of God's people in order to
bring his glowing book to a close. This he does in the two
remaining chapters. These chapters fall naturally in two
sections: first, the description of the Holy City, the New
Jerusalem, chapters 21:1-22:5, and second, the epilogue,
chapter 22:6-21.

1. The Holy City (Chapter 21:1-22:9)

To the Christian heart these chapters are among the dearest
of all not only in this book, but in the Bible. They help to
explain how the Book of Revelation found its way at last into
the New Testament canon. The history of the book is peculiar.
"At the outset it was generally accepted. In the second cen-
tury, it was among the earliest books to be included in the
growing New Testament. Hardly any one doubted its right
to be there. Yet in the third ' century the Greek theologians
of Alexandria — Origen and those whom he influenced — were
repelled by it, as are many to-day. Scholarly training could
not understand it and could not reconcile itself to its strange
thought and grotesque expression. . . . For centuries it was in
debate in the Greek church: ... to this day it is not a part

176 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

of the official Syrian New Testament." ' The Roman Church,
however, held fast to the book, and it was finally accepted as
one of the authoritative books of the New Testament.2 What
were the causes that led to its retention? Chief among them,
without question, was the immortal appeal of the book to
faith and fortitude, and its glowing assurances of ultimate vic-
tory. But also, we may believe, these final precious chapters
had much to do with the result. Doubtless they were read
and re-read by early Christians as they have been by Chris-
tians ever since. They brought unspeakable comfort to them
as they do to us. The Christian heart found that it could
not do without them. There was no substitute for them to
be found elsewhere in the New Testament. Their spiritual
value made the church reluctant to lose them. They were
found to be the best description of heaven, in the poetry of
the human heart, ever put into language. Men have always
wondered what heaven is like. To the Christians for whom
this book was written whose friends may already have suf-
fered or were to suffer martyrdom, these chapters brought an
imperishable message of comfort. That message it has
brought ever since. Any vision of heaven is welcomed by the
hungry souls of men. Let any one be able to speak of what
he feels heaven to be like, and multitudes will hear or read
what he has to say. In "Chapters from a Life" by Elizabeth
Stuart Phelps, we have a graphic illustration of this fact
(chapters 5 and 6). About the year 1863 a little book was
written by an unknown schoolgirl only twenty years of age.
"At that time the country was dark with sorrowing women.
The regiments came home, but the mourners went about the
streets. The Grand Review passed through Washington: four
hundred thousand ghosts of murdered men kept invisible
march to the drum-beats and lifted to the stained and tattered
flags the proud and unreturned gaze of the dead who have
died in their glory. Our gayest scenes were black with crepe :

1 James Hardy Ropes, Harvard Theological Review, Oct. 1919.

2 See E. C. Moore, The New Testament in the Christian Church,
pp. 182-187.

THE BLESSED CONSUMMATION 177*

the drawn faces of bereaved wife, mother, sister, and widowed
girl showed everywhere. Gray-haired parents knelt at the
grave of the boy whose enviable fortune it was to be brought
home in time to die in his mother's room. . . . Into that
great world of woe my little book stole forth trembling. But
the very title, 'Gates Ajar' caught the attention of the sor-
rowing multitudes." The book was everywhere read, and that
Andover school-girl's description of what heaven is like
brought comfort to hundreds of thousands of bereaved and
lonely souls. This incident in literature helps us to under-
stand the sacred and permanent meaning of these final chap-
ters of Revelation to the heart of Christians.

Of the place and meaning of these chapters in the plan of
the author, it is not necessary to speak. They are an amplifi-
cation and confirmation of those promises to the faithful wit-
nesses of Jesus contained in the previous chapters of the book.
In no more beautiful way could the author have completed his
inspired message. And in no more wonderful way could the
Bible itself have come to an end. What a unity the whole
Bible message has thus achieved! Genesis and Revelation
stand over against each other, the last book in the Bible ful-
filling even in detail the story of the first. There man was
created; here he stands redeemed. There the heavens and
the earth were fashioned. Here is a new heaven and a new
earth. There were cities of evil, here is a Holy City. There
was the tree of which man was forbidden to eat; here is the
tree of life. There was the curse; here is no more curse.
There the first man was driven out of Paradise; here is the
welcome, "Whosoever will, let him come." ^

The promise of immortality has its permanent place in
the social message of Revelation. Faith in immortality is in-
dispensable to the worker for righteousness and for a world
that hopes to achieve righteousness. This faith is not a mere
selfish desire for the perpetuation of the personal life, or the
selfish expectation of a personal reward. Rather it is the
indispensable assurance of the permanence of the sohl that

178 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

strives, and of the permanence of those spiritual ideals for
which it strives. It is only as one believes that "he who
doeth the will of the Lord abideth forever," and that "our
labor is not in vain in the Lord," that one is given the spiritual
convictions that fill his social striving with hope and joy.
All history and biography go to prove that faith in im-
mortality, and achievement in the realm of moral and spiritual
endeavor, go hand in hand. These chapters are an essential
part of the social message of the Book of Revelation.

The author found materials for his immortal description
of the Holy City in the Old Testament.1 We may trace their
development in the following way: We find in the Old Testa-
ment the idea of a restored Jerusalem after its first fall. As
we have seen, Ezekiel and Isaiah, when they picture the New
Jerusalem rising from the ruins of the old, begin to use super-
natural language. Sometimes it is only a city that has become
morally pure, a "holy city" in literal terms. (Isa. 52:1.)
Often the city is invested with an unearthly glory.

I will set thy stones with fair colours and lay thy founda-
tions with sapphires. And I will make thy pinnacles of rubies
and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of precious
stones (Isa. 54:11, 12). Thy gates also shall be open continu-
ally; they shall not be shut day nor night. The glory of
Lebanon shall come unto thee (Isa. 60:11, 13).

Ezekiel in chapters 40-48 gives us such a spiritualized de-
scription of the New Jerusalem, closing with the word:

And the name of the city from that day shall be, The
Lord is there.

Of course it was of an earthly Jerusalem that these men
wrote. Yet the more glorious the city was imagined to be,
the easier it was to arrive at the idea that God Himself had
first fashioned the city in heaven, and that from there it
would descend to earth. This idea of a pre-existent Jerusalem
is not clearly found in Jewish writing's until after the destruc-
JSee Porter, pp. 282ff.

THE BLESSED CONSUMMATION 179

tion of Jerusalem in the year 70 of the Christian era. Then,
however, with the complete obliteration of all earthly hopes,
this exalted and unearthly conception of a Jerusalem existing
in heaven plainly appears. Thus in II Esdras we read:

And the bride shall appear, and she coming forth shall
be seen that now is withdrawn from the earth (7: 26).
And Sion shall come and shall be shewed unto all men
being prepared and builded like as thou sawest the hill
graven without hands (13:36). For unto you is Paradise
opened: the tree of life is planted, the time to come is pre-
pared, plenteousness is made ready, a city is builded (8: 52).
For in the place where the Highest beginneth to shew his
city, there can no man's building be able to stand. And
therefore fear not . . . but go thy way in and see the
beauty and greatness of the building, as much as thine eye
is able to see (10:54, 55).

And reflections of this idea of a heavenly Jerusalem are
found in certain New Testament passages, as in Gal. 4:26,
and Heb. 11:10-16, 12:22, 13:14.

These, then, are the materials which the author uses. It is
useless to ask how far he shared in these Jewish beliefs. That
the early disciples held them, we know (Matt. 20:21, Acts
1:6). We know also that they gave gradually away before
the pressure of more distinctively Christian ideas and that
few survivals of them are to be found in the later and more
spiritual portions of the New Testament. It is true that
our author was saturated with Jewish ideas, of which this
was one. But it is also true that he was a Christian. The
fact that he uses Jewish material does not prove that he
shared in the Jewish faith which produced it. He is for-
ever turning material to his own ends. That he himself
looked forward to an idealized Jerusalem on earth seems
most improbable. What he describes is no earthly city.
"The heavenly city remains heavenly in character though it
descends to earth." He uses this symbolic language to depict
the New Jerusalem which, most probably for him and cer-
tainly for us, is none other than the heaven of the Chris-
tian's hope. Using the longings of Israel for a New Jeru-

180 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

salem, touched with the customs and longings of the Chris-
tian heart, he has given us this incomparable description of
Jerusalem the Golden; of the presence of God and spiritual
communion with Him of his faithful people. None but the
most incorrigible literalist will think of analyzing these meas-
urements of the walls, or of constructing any material no-
tions from them. We understand this language to be wholly
symbolic, used to give the impression of the glory, vastness,
beauty and perfection of the heavenly life. It is indeed "to
our great advantage that the Jewish prophets expected an
earthly consummation, for they were able to give to this a
vivid, concrete emotional expression, and the language of
beauty and feeling in which they voiced their hope is a far
more adequate expression of our more ideal aspirations than
we could create for ourselves. Figurative language is the
only language in which we can express our hope of heaven,
and no figures can have greater power to suggest this hope
than those taken from the literal longings of exiled Israel
for the recovery of its land and city."1

Chapter 21:1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth
for the first heaven and earth had vanished, and the sea
no longer exists. 2. And I saw the holy city descending
from heaven arrayed like a bride. 3. And a voice from
heaven told me that this meant that God would now dwell
among men 4. and take from them tears and death and
sorrow and pain, because the first things had passed away.
5. And God from his throne declared that his word is to
be trusted that He makes all things new. 6. He said:
It is finished. I am the First and the Last, and I will
give water without price to all that are thirsty. 7. The
victor shall inherit all this and we shall be as Father and
son. 8. But the faint-hearted and the faithless and the
wicked shall have their share of the lake of fire. 9. And
one of the angels who had the bowls told me that he would
show me the New Jerusalem, the bride of Christ. 10.
And, as in a vision, I saw the holy city descending out
of heaven 11. having the glory of God and shining like a
diamond, and clear as crystal. 12, 13. It had great walls,
and twelve gates, four on each side, corresponding to the
twelve tribes of Israel. 14. And the wall had twelve founda-
1 Porter, pp. 287, 288.

THE BLESSED CONSUMMATION 181

tions, one for each of the twelve apostles. 15,16. And the
angel measured the city with a golden reed, and found
that it measured fifteen hundred miles, and its length and
breadth and height were the same. 17. He also measured
the wall and it was about two hundred feet thick accord-
ing to man's way of measuring which was the standard
adopted by the angel. 18. The wall was of diamond, but
the city itself was like transparent gold. 19,20. The twelve
foundation stones were twelve different jewels, 21. and each
gate was a single pearl, and the streets transparent gold.

22. There was no temple because God and Christ are there.

23. And there was no need of other light than their glory.

24. By this light shall the nations walk, and kings will
bring their treasure into 25. its ever-open gates, which
are never closed by day, and night there is none. 26. Yea,
the splendour of the nations shall be brought there. 27. Yet
nothing unclean shall enter into it nor any save them whom
Christ hath chosen. Chapter 22:1. And he shewed me the
living water which flowed forth from God's throne 2. through
the streets of the city. And on each side of the river was
the tree of Life which bore fruit twelve times a year
sufficient to feed the nations, and the leaves of the tree
served to heal them. 3. No one who is accursed shall be
there, but the throne of God and of Christ shall be there,
and his servants will serve Him 4. and see Him and bear
his name. 5. And there shall be no night, and they will
need neither lamp nor sun-light, for the glory of God will
shine upon them. So they shall live and reign forever.

Notes 21:1 No more sea The Hebrews shared intensely the
ancients' dread of the sea. Every voyage recounted in Scrip-
ture ends in shipwreck, (cf. Isa. 57:20; Ps. 107:25-28;
Ezek. 28:8.) The idea may go back to the mythical notion
that the sea is the symbol of chaos. V. 3 (cf. 7:15; Ezek.
37:27; Zech. 2:10, 8:8; II Cor. 6:16.) v. 4 (Isa. 25:8, 35:10,
65:17, 19; Hos. 13:14.) v. 5 (II Cor. 5:17.) v. 6 (Isa. 55:1,
44:3; Ps. 42:lff, 63:1; John 4:10,14; 7:37ff.) v. 8 (Ps.
11:6; Isa. 30:33; Ezek. 38:22.) v. 9 By using one of the
angels with the bowls for this purpose, the author contrasts
the picture of the Holy City with that of the harlot city in
chapter 17. Note the close correspondence of chapters 17 :1,3,
and 21:9, 10. v. 11 (cf. Ezek. 43:5; Isa. 60:1.) Jasper is
probably our diamond.1 v. 12 (See Ezek. 48:1-20.) v. 13

1 See Hastings' Bible Dictionary, article "Precious Stones."

182 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

Taken directly from Ezek. 48:31ff. (See Isa. 62:6; II Chron.
8:14.) v. 14 (Isa. 28:16; Heb. 11:10; Eph. 2:20; Matt.
16:18.) w. 15,16 (Ezek. 40:3-20.) It is not apparent that
the author means to draw a distinction between the city and
the wall. The two form a single idea. Each dimension meas-
ured 1500 miles, v. 17 Since the height of the wall has al-
ready been given, it seems natural to understand this meas-
urement to refer to its thickness. (See Ezek. 40:5, 42:20.)
v. 18 The details are suggested by Isa. 54:llff; Tobit 13 :16ff.
w. 19-20 (See Ex. 28:17ff, 39:10ff; Ezek. 28:13.) v. 22 The
author leaves the prophets here where the temple is a promi-
nent feature of the glorified city (Isa. 44:28, 60:13) and
speaks like a Christian (John 4:21, 23). v. 23 (Isa. 60:19ff.)
vv. 24-26 The author does not hesitate to introduce alien na-
tions in his picture of the Holy City, since his desire is to
describe the universal sway of God to whom all are subject.
He is using well known passages for this purpose. (See
Isa. 60:3, 11; Tobit 13:11.) v. 27 (See Isa. 52:1; Ezek. 44:9.)
22:1 Ezekiel is closely followed here. (See Ezek. 47:1-12.)
v. 2 The first clause in this verse is best joined with v. 1.
Tree of Life suggested from Gen. 2 :8, 9. (cf. II Esdras 7 :53,
8:52. See Ezek. 47:12.) The healing properties of leaves
suggests the use of plants as medicines, v. 3. No more curse,
or, more likely, no more accursed thing (Jos. 7:12). v. 4
(See Ps. 17:15; Matt. 5:8; I Jn. 3:2.) v. 5 (Dan. 7:27;
Rom. 5:17.)

2. The Epilogue (Chapter 22:6-21)

With the fifth verse of the last chapter of Revelation the
visions come to an end. There is nothing left for the author
to do but to end the book itself. Readers will compare this
epilogue carefully with the prologue. The correspondences
between the two make it evident that they were composed to-
gether with the express purpose of having the same ideas
stand both at the beginning and at the end. They are held

THE BLESSED CONSUMMATION 183

together by the solemn announcement of the same purpose,
the same warnings, and the same assurance. Possibly the
prologue may have been composed after the epilogue already
had been written. At any rate it was certainly influenced
by it. In both, we have the assurance that the revelation
comes from God Himself (1:1, 22:6); and from Christ (1:1,
22:16); by means of an angel (1:1, 22:16); through John
(1:1, 4, 9; 22:8) duly commissioned (1:1, 9-11; 22:8, 10); it
is to be read in the churches (1:3, 11; 22:16, 18); it prom-
ises a sure reward to the faithful (1:3; 22:7, 12, 14) ; and sure
punishment to the faithless (1:7; 22:11, 18); the coming of
the Lord is near (1:3; 22:6, 20) ; who was the historic Jesus,
but is now the ascended and victorious Christ (1:5, 7;
22:13, 16). These are the ideas with which the book begins,
and ends.

No one can read this epilogue and escape the conviction
that when the author wrote it, he was in the grip of great
spiritual excitement. It is as if he were tossing into this
closing passage one after another the thoughts that rose like
a tumult in his soul. Cool, critical analysts have found in
these disjointed sentences, these ejaculatory interpolations,
these repetitions and interruptions, proof of the composite
nature of the book, and they would smooth it all out and
arrange it according to logical sequences of their own. They
only reveal how much they themselves are strangers to in-
spiration and unacquainted with prophetic moods and in-
stinct. All through this book there have been interruptions
and repetitions. It is part of the author's manner. He has
sketched his drama in the large, and has followed his spirit-
ual purpose from beginning to end with passionate precision.
As we have seen, in constructing the different scenes he has
thrown together his materials with regard to pictorial effect
and general impression, rather than with a view to logical
order and connection. That is what we should expect of an
apocalyptical writer. He moves in a realm of great, general
ideas and he labors under great spiritual emotion. He fills up

{

184 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

his chapters with a wealth of material; repeats the same idea
in different form; has an eye to contrast; his fervid spiritual
imagination leaps from one idea to another; he interjects
brief prophetic utterances that disturb the exact sequence
of thought; and breaks out in impassioned appeals and warn-
ings as these capture his mind. It is all in the way of his
writing. It is all according to his purpose.1

So, in this final passage, bringing his book to an impas-
sioned end, he throws together what has been in his mind
from the first.2 Those early Christians must stand firm in
their hour of trial. The Christian faith is at stake. The
church is at the cross-roads. Be firm. These promises are
sure. Christ is coming quickly. His reward is with Him.
Blessed are the faithful. Swift and sure is the punishment
of the faithless. This book is indeed the very word of God.
0 come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Two ideas stand out from this final passage which call for
comment. One is the repeated asseveration that John writes
from a felt conviction received from God Himself. These
are not John's ideas. They are a message from God con-
veyed through him. Over and over again this idea has been
insisted upon; in these last verses it is once more solemnly
asserted. The author of this book, that is, is a veritable
prophet. He closes the long line of inspired Bible writers.
He speaks out what God has given him to say. We are re-
minded here of the uniqueness of Bible inspiration. There
is nothing like it in all literature. The difference between
the Bible and other books, as Frederick Denison Maurice once
remarked, is that in other writings we have men's thoughts
about God, but in the Bible we have God's thought toward
man. The Book of Revelation measures up to Bible standards.
Nowhere in the Bible do we have literature as such. No Bible

1 See Beckwith, pp. 241ff.

2 "Civilization will not be saved by flabby optimism, nor by irreso-
lute good-will. It needs the virtues of the warrior and no call to
its service is even more pressing now than ever was the call to
arms," President Richard C. Maclaurin.

THE BLESSED CONSUMMATION 185

author writes merely for the sake of writing. Each writes
from a conscious motive and for a particular moral end. So
writes this inspired author. His message came to him from
God. It came from Christ. It bore their authentication. It
was given to the churches. It was given for a purpose. They
who read it must not, could not, doubt its truth. The au-
thority of the message of this book thus rests in the fact that
it is grounded in the moral purpose of God. It is not some-
thing that can be questioned or debated. It is as if the
honor of God were at stake. "These sayings are faithful
and true."

For us to-day, the ultimate value of the social message
of the Book of Revelation lies in the fact that here is no
theory of social salvation, no scheme of social redemption,
no human plan of social readjustment or amelioration. The
world is glutted with these. Panaceas and cure-alls abound
on every hand. Every age and generation has its own methods
of reform. Behind all these, the worker for righteousness
has this inspired book. It tells him that behind all the move-
ments of history, and underlying all human efforts for a better
world-order, there is a God at work; there is the omnipotent
Christ traveling in the glory of his strength. Evil cannot
permanently withstand these divine forces that already have
decreed its overthrow. The victory of righteousness is in-
volved in the very nature of God. Christ is the guarantee.
Here is the unshakable foundation. In his darkest days in
darkest Africa, David Livingstone could write these words:
"He will keep his word. He will bring it to pass. I may
fall by the way, being unworthy to see the dawning I had
hoped to see. It will come through; it must come, and I
do not despair of the day one bit. Doubt is here inadmis-
sible, surely." It is the only sure foundation of the Social
Hope. "These sayings are faithful and true."

What are we to make of the author's repeated assertions
that Christ is to come quickly? The idea is repeated more
than once in this brief passage. Let the book remain open,

186 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

instead of being sealed as in the case of the book of Daniel,
for the time is at hand. Let the unjust remain unjust. There
is no time for moral change. "Surely I come quickly." Did
the author expect the speedy advent of the visible Christ?
Did he look for the consummation of things in the near
future? Was the whole Apocalypse an imminent event?

A careful reader of the New Testament will hesitate to
answer that question dogmatically. It may well be asked
"Who can say?" We know that the expectation of the quick
coming of Christ runs all through the New Testament from
beginning to end. We know that it was the fervid hope of
many who lived at the age of our author, when the very
contrast between Caesar and Christ was such that nothing but
an immediate return of the Son of Man in power and great
glory would seem to answer the situation and assure the sal-
vation of the people of God. Our author may have shared in
that hope. Yet even if he did, it is to be noted that it is
the spiritual and not the material meaning of that Advent
which he impresses on his hearers. The sure coming of Christ
is not a substitute for struggle; rather it is an incitement to
renewed fidelity and endurance. The knowledge of his coming
is to provide them with the spiritual assurance which they
need in order to continue to be faithful unto death. That
Christ is coming is the message of Revelation as it was
of the Gospels. Be ye therefore ready, faithful, watching,
waiting, working, struggling.

In this sense the truth of the coming of Christ is a neces-
sary part of the equipment of Christ's servants to-day. It
is a mistake to banish the notion of the second coming as if
it were a remote and unpractical truth, lying in the sphere
of speculation, yet having no message for us to-day. The
Advent hope, on the contrary, is an indispensable part of
our moral equipment. Without it, it must be urged at the
end as at the beginning of this study, we are bereft of a
spiritual assurance which is precious and essential.

It is possible, however, that our author in voicing his ex-

THE BLESSED CONSUMMATION 187

pectation of the coming of Christ was not thinking of his
visible Advent, or imagining that the end of the world was
indeed at hand. It may be that what he was looking for was
an immediate manifestation of Christ in history, which should
show itself in judgment upon Rome, and the immediate de-
liverance of Christian believers from persecution and death.
This we have seen to be the theme of the book from begin-
ning to end. At no time has the prophet peered into the
future. Throughout, he has focused his eyes on the terrible
emergency of the present hour. No single passage in the
book taken by itself contains the idea of the bodily return
of Christ. The whole argument of it moves in the realm of
spiritual ideas. The whole point of it is that deliverance is
at hand; and that this deliverance is bound up with the per-
son of Christ. When, therefore, at the end the author says,
"I come quickly," it is as if he said, "Salvation is at hand;
the hour of victory through Christ is about to dawn." In
that sense the words were literally true, and in that sense
they were literally fulfilled. Christ came in judgment upon
Rome. Christ came and vindicated his cause. There will
never be an hour in history when the coming of Christ was
so evident in its meaning and in its results as that fateful
hour in the moral history of the world when into the hands
of Christ there passed the control of the moral destinies of
mankind. It did not come in the life-time of the prophet
or of those to whom he wrote. But who can read the con-
test between Christ and Caesar from the day of the birth of
Jesus to that of the triumph of Christianity without echoing
in wonderment at the suddenness of that transition, the words
"Surely I come quickly"?

When one surveys the history of the world since the day
when this book was written, what is more evident than the
quick coming of Christ in judgment upon the world, and in
vindication of his truth? How quickly that revelation has
come in our day! Men were eating and drinking, marrying
and playing, working and traveling in entire ignorance of

188 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION

what was "about to happen/' in the year of grace 1914, when
without warning there fell upon this world a terrible judg-
ment, a swift and awful reckoning such as it had never known.
In an hour, thrones crashed to the dust, and institutions that
seemed embedded in the very structure of society crumbled
into nothingness. The social message of this book tells us
that such swift comings of Christ in judgment are a part of
the moral order. Upon them the witnesses of Jesus may de-
pend. Such do not need to measure their hope by the slow
movements of time, the gradual progress of the age, the dis-
appointing ebb and flow of popular idealism. Over and a.bove
all this watching and guarding his cause there is the Divine
Author and Reviewer of events. At any moment He may
appear on the field of history when a thousand years shall
be in his sight as one day, and that shall be brought to pass
for which men may long have waited and yearned. This is
the social message of the reiterated faith in the sudden com-
ing of Christ. When the hour is darkest and hope is dim-
mest, and obstacles seem insuperable, and evil is triumphant,
one can echo the sublime words with which the book closes.

Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Chapter 22: 6. The angel assured me that these promises
were genuine and trustworthy, and that they would soon
be fulfilled. 7. Behold (said Christ Himself), I come quickly.
Blessed the man who lays this prophecy to heart. 8. I my-
self, John, saw and heard these things. And again I felt
like worshipping the angel. 9. But again he restrained me,
saying, I am but a servant like yourself and your brothers
who lay to heart the sayings of this book. Worship God
alone. 10. And he told me not to seal the book for it must
be read at once. The time is near. 11. Every one must
not keep the character he has acquired: unjust, impure
and righteous alike will remain as they are, 12. for I now
come to reward each according to his deeds. 13. I am the
beginning and the end. 14, 15. Blessed are they that are
clean and pure (R. V.) and so have entrance to the blessed-
ness of heaven from which all the wicked and the impure
are excluded. 16. It is I, Jesus, who have sent this message
to my churches through mine own angel: I, who am the
promised Messiah, the Morning Star. 17. Both the Spirit

THE BLESSED CONSUMMATION 189

and the church bid all who will to come to the blessedness
of eternal life. 18, 19. Let no one add to or take from the
words of this book lest its penalties be visited upon him,
and he be excluded from the blessings of heaven. 20. He
who bears this testimony (Christ the real author of this
revelation) says once more, Surely I come quickly. And
the yearning cry of his servants is this: Yea, come, Lord
Jesus. 21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you all, Amen.

Notes v. 6 These sayings, i.e. the whole message of the
book, although the immediate reference is to the vision pre-
ceding. The God of the prophets, i.e. the spirit of prophecy
(See 19:10. cf. I Cor. 14:32). i.e. the divinely inspired
prophets. God controls their inspiration. Thus their utter-
ance is true and final. Angel here standing for every form
of mediation by which the message of the book was received.
v. 7 As if Christ Himself spoke in the angel. The Lord speaks
directly, (cf. Rev. 1:5.) The last words of the verse may
belong to the apocalyptist. Keep means lay hold on, guard,
lay to heart, v. 8 assumes that John was well known to them,
v. 9 (see 19:10). If either passage is an interpolation, it
must be the earlier one. It seems natural here. There may
be intended a protest against angel-worship (see Col. 2:18).
v. 10 See Dan. 8 :26, 12 :4, 9, where the book, supposedly writ-
ten long before the events described, is to be sealed in order
to preserve its contents. Just the opposite is the case here.
v. 11 (see Dan. 12 :10; Ezek. 3 :27). "There is a tone of irony
in the utterance" (Beckwith). v. 12 (see Isa. 40:10, 62:11;
I Cor. 3:8; Ps. 62:12). v. 13 Added to give solemn assur-
ance of what has just been said. This is the language used
of God in chapter 1, but applied here to Christ. This in-
terchange of attributes is not the least remarkable feature
of the book, if we remember that the author was a Jew,
writing within a generation of the death of Jesus, v. 14
The better reading is that of the R. V. (cf. I Cor. 6:11.)
v. 15 Dogs (See II Kings 8:13; Ps. 22:16, 20; Phil. 3:2.) v.
16 Jesus Used to emphasize his historic character. The name
is used fourteen times in all the book, and almost always

190 SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE BOOK OF EEVELATION

in connection with the work of witnessing. Churches The
seven churches are meant. Root means scion. (Isa. 53:2,
11:10; Ecclesiasticus 47:22.) Star (cf. Num. 24:17. See
2:28.) v. 17 Spirit, i.e. speaking- through the prophet;
heareth, all who hear the book read in the churches. These
will join in the prayer for the Advent of Christ. Then,
thinking of these hearers, the prophet changes his thought
abruptly and appeals to all who will to come and take what
Christ has to offer (cf. 13:9, 14:13). vv. 18, 19 (cf. Deut.
4:2, 12:32; Jer. 26:2). This message must be received by
the hearer without any effort to change its meaning or to evade
its consequences, v. 20 He who testifieth The whole con-
tents of the book is meant, v. 21 The book closes with the
familiar Pauline benediction.

BIBLIOGEAPHY

Indispensable to a study of the Book of Revelation are: Ar-
ticles in Hastings' Bible Dictionary, and in the Encyclopedia
Biblica; The Old Testament Apocrypha; Introduction to the
Literature of the New Testament by James Moffatt (Scribner's,
1914) ; The Apocalypse of John by Isbon T. Beckwith (MacMillan,
1919); The Revelation of John, by Shirley J. Case (University
of Chicago Press, 1919) ; and The Messages of the Apocalyptical
Writers by Frank C. Porter (Scribner's, 1909).

Helpful books of reference are: Robert H. Charles' Apocrypha
and Pseudepigrapha (Oxford Press, 1913); William M. Ramsay's
St. Paul the Traveler and the Roman Citizen (London, 1896) and
especially The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia (Armstrong,
1905) ; The Revelation of St. John, the Divine, in the Expositor's
Greek Testament (New York, vol. V, pp. 279-494) ; The Book of
Revelation by John T. Dean (Edinburgh, 1915) ; and C. Anderson
Scott's The Book of Revelation (New Century Bible, New York,
1902). A helpful devotional study of the book is John T. Dean's
Visions and Revelations (Edinburgh, 1911). See also Frederic
Palmer, The Drama of the Apocalypse (MacMillan, 1903) and
Shirley J. Case, The Millennial Hope (University of Chicago Press,
1918). For fuller bibliographical notes see Porter pp. 359-363,
and Case, The Revelation of John, pp. 408, 409.

Date Due

BS2825.C155

The social message of the book of

Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library

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