Notes On The Apocalypse by David Steele

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V. 8.--"There followed another angel." Some expositors[8] interpret this
angel of Luther, some of Calvin; but no _individual_ is sufficiently
prominent in history to justify the application to him of so striking a
symbol in so concise a prophecy. Such restriction of a symbol to an
individual results from _prelatic_ habits of thought. In the mind of a
prelate the idea of a gospel ministry includes that of a _metropolitan_.
This angel is, in fact, as usual, simply the emblem of the ministry, not
excluding the social body of which they are the official guides.

This second angel carries forward the reformation effected by his
predecessor, reviving that cause when it began to languish under the
violence of Antichrist. "While the Roman pontiff," says Mosheim,
"slumbered in security at the head of the church, and saw nothing
throughout the vast extent of his domain but tranquillity and
submission, and while the worthy and pious professors of genuine
Christianity almost despaired of seeing that Reformation on which their
most ardent desires and expectations were bent, an obscure and
inconsiderable person arose on a sudden, in the year 1517, and laid the
foundation of the long expected change, by opposing with undaunted
resolution his single force to the torrent of papal ambition and
despotism." That individual was the heroic Luther, whose praise is in
all the churches till the present day. No individual is so famous in the
history of that eventful period as Martin Luther, for recovering the
doctrine of justification by the righteousness of Christ, to the
exclusion of all creature merit. This fundamental principle in the
economy of man's salvation he justly denominated _articulus stantis vel
cadentis ecclesiae_--"the hinge of a standing or falling church." By the
defence and propagation of this doctrine especially, the priestly office
of Christ was vindicated against the dogmas of penance, indulgence and
supererogation, inculcated by the "Man of Sin;" and by consequence, one
of the bulwarks of mystical Babylon effectually demolished. At the
famous Diet of Worms, which, like the Council of Constance, combined the
imperial power of Rome, civil and ecclesiastic, that indomitable servant
of Christ gave a visible demonstration that "the Spirit of the Father"
animated and "spake in him," (Matt. x. 20.) Not less explicit was Luther
on the fundamental doctrine of the divine decrees; which, with other
Arminian dogmas of creature-merit, had been almost universally
propagated and stamped with the pretended infallible authority of Rome.
By the translation and circulation of the Holy Scriptures among the
people, the idolatries, impositions and profligacy of the priesthood
were extensively discovered. And after years of deference to
ecclesiastical authority, conditional proposals of submission to the
Pope upon conviction of error in his _theses_, or conscientious belief,
Luther in time arrived at the conclusion that the church of Rome was
irreclaimable, giving publicity to his deep convictions in a treatise
_De Captivitate Babylonica_,--"The Captivity of Babylon." In the 18th
chapter of this book, he discovered that Babylon is doomed to
destruction. He considered the church of Rome as answering to the
prophetic symbol, and of course not to be reformed. It was an obvious
inference--he ought to obey Christ rather than the Pope,--"Come out of
her, my people."--This call was indeed a sufficient warrant to separate
from the Church of Rome; and, acting on it, protestant churches have
ever since been organized: but the type or symbol, Babylon, was
unwarrantably restricted in import, as representing only the Church of
Rome. And it is to be deplored that most protestant expositors continue
to limit the inspired symbol in the same way till the present time. The
literal Babylon, a name common to the ancient city and empire by the
river Euphrates, was in no sense a church; and it would be anomalous and
incongruous to select either city or empire as an _emblem of a church_!
There is, however, in the Apocalypse a combining or blending of symbols
in order clearly and fully to represent a complex moral person. This has
been already exemplified in ch. xiii. 2, where the prominent features of
Daniel's first _three_ beasts, (ch. vii. 4-6,) are combined in John's
_first_ beast of the sea. Just so in this instance. The idolatrous and
tyrannical Roman empire, in alliance with an apostate church,
constitutes mystical Babylon. History demonstrates the fact of their
coalition. The great red dragon, the devil, operates through both during
the allotted period of 1260 years against the witnesses of Christ.
Sometimes, indeed, the nominal church is the more active and visible
instrument, and at other times the state, in opposing Mediatory
authority; and thus Babylon, or one of her streets, which is the
equivalent of a horn of the beast, becomes prominent. This second angel
confidently proclaims,--"Babylon is fallen, is fallen." So said Isaiah
of literal Babylon long before the event; (ch. xxi. 9,) and so said
Jeremiah, (ch. li. 8,) to whose predictions John obviously alludes. All
these three prophets speak in present time of a future event, simply
because of the settled and unalterable purpose of God, acting not
formally as a sovereign, but as a judge. The multiplied and aggravated
crimes of Babylon, literal or mystical Babylon, are the just grounds of
her deserved and awful doom. From ancient times God has declared by his
prophets the things that are not yet done. (Isa. xlvi. 10.) His counsel
stands and he doeth all his pleasure.

That the mystical Babylon emblematically represented the complex systems
of civil and ecclesiastical corruption and despotism organized in
Christendom, was in some degree understood by the reformers in Europe;
but the work of this second angel was carried on successively by men of
piety and learning, who were eminently qualified for systematically
arranging the doctrines of grace as deduced from the word of God. Their
pious labors we still have in the forms of Bodies of Divinity and
Confessions of Faith, in both which the unscriptural and antiscriptural
dogmas and heresies of Rome are condemned and solidly confuted by the
Scriptures. There is a wonderful "harmony of confessions" framed by
those who separated from the fellowship of the Romish church; which
harmony can be accounted for only by the fact that those who framed them
drew their materials from the Bible. But it was by their public
_covenants especially_, that the reformers lifted a testimony against
the heresies, immoralities and tyrannies of the church of Rome. And
among all the churches of the Reformation, that of Scotland is justly
entitled to the pre-eminence. In no nation or state in Christendom did
the witnesses of Christ,--the second angel, attain so nearly to a
scriptural model of organized society in church and state as in that
land, whose mountains and valleys were "flowered with martyrs" for a
"Covenanted Work of Reformation." As Zuingle the Swiss-reformer excelled
Luther, Calvin and others in Europe in the application of the divine
moral law, as revealed in Scriptures, to civil society, so John Knox in
Scotland was equally clear, that royal personages are amenable to the
body politic, and both to the Mediator.

_We are now_ under the ministry of this _second_ "angel." The revival
effected by the first angel had greatly declined before the second made
his appearance; and all persons of intelligence and spiritual
discernment in our day, lament the visible decline in practical
godliness, arising from indifference to divine truth. Most professing
Christians, including the descendants of the martyrs, are "willingly
ignorant" of the attainments and sufferings of their illustrious
predecessors. The work of reformation to be accomplished by the second
angel, we suppose to have been completed about the middle of the
seventeenth century. Since that period his work appears from history to
consist in testifying against defection from the reformation which had
been reached. The "great city" is to fall "because she made all nations
drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." She is "spiritually
called Sodom and Egypt," neither of which was a church any more than
Babylon. These were all heathen communities, never _married_ to the
Lord; therefore Babylon is not here charged as an adulteress, but with
_fornication_. The nations are her paramours. Her wine is intoxicating.
It deranges the intellect and stupifies the conscience. Will any
reasoning prevail with a drunken man? An active politician is
proverbially unscrupulous, and proof against the law of God. There is,
however, "wrath" in this cup. Those who refuse to "kiss the Son" must
feel the weight of his iron rod. (Ps. ii. 9, 12; lxxv. 8.)

The "little book" introduced at the 10th chapter, is included in the
first 13 verses of the 11th chapter, which comprehends a concise history
of the 1260 years, as we have seen. At the 15th verse, the seventh and
last trumpet is sounded which introduces the millennium and gives a
brief outline of events till the end of the world. Then the three
following chapters give in detail the events prior to the millennium, a
commentary, as it were, on the "little book," but resuming a narrative
of the sealed book's contents, which had been suspended at the end of
the 9th chapter. There, as we have seen, the first and second
woe-trumpets left the population of the Roman church and empire still in
rebellion:--"They repented not."--Hence it is apparent that the work of
these symbolic angels consists in opposing the antichristian systems of
organized society during the period of the fifth and sixth trumpets.
This they do partly by declaring the truth as it is in Jesus, and partly
by denouncing divine judgments on the impenitent. The first angel, by
proclaiming the "everlasting gospel," called upon men to "fear God and
give glory to him," and not to idols,--threatening "coming judgment."
The great majority of those addressed, however, disregarding alike his
loving instructions and faithful warnings, must hear from the second
angel that the judgment threatened by his predecessor, is now
imminent:--"Babylon is fallen," etc. Notwithstanding the faithful and
earnest contendings of the Waldenses, Bohemians and others on the
continent of Europe, seconded by the Lollards in England, so far were
the votaries of Antichrist from repenting of their idolatry and
profligacy, that they became more and more exasperated against those
witnesses who tormented them, and attempted to silence their testimony
by committing their leaders to the flames. Hence the second angel's
ministry consists more in denouncing judgment than in offering mercy to
the penitent; and the history of the struggles in Europe and the British
Isles between Christ's witnesses and the Roman Antichrist in the 16th
and 17th centuries, demonstrates the awful fact that they, with great
and wonderful unanimity, judged the church of Rome at least, utterly
irreclaimable. Of this united judgment the Confessions of those
reformers are at this day a standing evidence. But chief among the
churches and nations of Christendom stands Scotland, as well before as
after her appearance, by her famous Commissioners, in the Westminster
Assembly of Divines. In her full and free Assembly, and by her national
representatives, sustained by all their pious constituency, she uttered
those memorable words,--"We abhor and detest ... chiefly all kind of
Papistry in general and particular heads, even as they are damned
(_condemned_) and _confuted_ by the word of God and Kirk of Scotland."
Perhaps this is the only instance hitherto within the 1260 years, where
a _whole church_ and _nation_, under the awful sanction of a _solemn
oath_, has pronounced a judicial sentence of condemnation upon the
church of Rome. Thus with confidence did those noble witnesses pronounce
the anticipated doom of the mystic Babylon. But alas! may we not adopt
and apply now (1870,) the language of the weeping prophet?--"How is she
become a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among
the provinces!"

As declension among those who had protested against the corruptions of
Antichrist, under the ministry of the first angel of reform, together
with the continued impenitence of the multitude who still wondered after
the beast, called for the appearance of the second angel of revival, so
the moral condition of the world called for the work of his successor.
In the mean time, living as we now are, within the period allotted in
prophecy and in history to the ministry of the second angel of revival
and reform, it is but too evident that there is a great and increasing
decline among the best reformed churches. Many of the Protestant
ministry, especially of the prelatic order, are posting back to Rome;
and the growing ritualism, with its gaudy and splendid "attire of a
harlot," which characterizes others, plainly indicates their tendency in
the same direction. And even those other denominations, which are not
yet prepared to adopt that "blasphemous hierarchy," are visibly
departing from the soundness in doctrine and purity of gospel worship
which constituted the chief glory of the Second Reformation. These are
the baleful effects of the dragon's influence "on the earth," (ch. xii.
13, 15.) Besides, nearly all ecclesiastical bodies are yet in cordial
alliance with the beast of the sea; and this alliance is the Antichrist.
The Pope is now nearly divested of his former civil supremacy, and in
this respect become less the express image of the imperial beast of the
sea, (ch. xiii. 14;) yet the leaven of the Romish religion pervades all
the Christian community, so far as allegiance to the beast or his horns
is either enjoined or tolerated. This usurpation of the royal
prerogatives of Christ over the churches and nations in the eastern
hemisphere by the kings of the earth, and a similar usurpation in the
western hemisphere, whether by individual despots or by the body
politic, is the _great crime_ which fills the measure of the cup of
wrath, to be poured out of the "seven vials." While such is the moral
condition of society in all lands favored with a revelation of the will
of God,--visited with judgments, continuing impenitent and guilt
augmenting, what is to be expected but heavier judgments to follow?

9. And the third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice, If any
man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his
forehead, or in his hand,

10. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is
poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall
be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the Lamb:

11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and
they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image,
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Vs. 9-11.--"And the third angel followed." The two preceding angels
addressed _communities_, calling them to repentance and reformation.
Indeed, the language of the second implies little or no hope of their
recovery. This third angel, "following" up the scriptural testimony of
those who went before, and assuming that church and state,--the
essential elements of the antichristian system,--continue irreclaimable,
addresses his message to _individuals_. This angel is the last that the
Lord Jesus will employ to awaken sinners that "are at ease in Zion." His
ministry is yet future, and he will never be succeeded by an angel of
mercy until mystical Babylon is overthrown. The special, arduous and
perilous work of this angel is, to threaten eternal death against every
individual who persists in the hitherto popular idolatry. "If any man
worship the beast."--Up to the time of this angel's appearance the beast
lives and devours his prey: consequently, his work comes within the
period of the 1260 years. During this limited time, there will be found
in the Apocalypse _three objects_ of popular devotion,--the dragon, (ch.
xiii. 4,) the _beast_, and his _image_, (v. 15.) In this place the
dragon is omitted, as also in ch. xv. 2; xx. 4. We may ask, why the
omission?--Simply because "the things which the _Gentiles_ sacrifice,
they sacrifice to devils, and not to God," (1 Cor. x. 20;) consequently,
these worshippers being _Gentiles_, (ch. xi. 2,) there is no necessity
that the dragon (the devil) should be particularized. From the first
rise of the beast, he was in alliance with the dragon, (ch. xiii. 2, 3;)
therefore both are doomed to perdition, (ch. xx. 10.) Most expositors
consider this angel as emblematical of events already past; the
reformation effected by Luther, his coadjutors and successors, or the
church of England![9] Their error consists in viewing the beast as the
symbol of the church of Rome. And it is remarkable, that through the
power of local and political bias, those commentators who themselves
perceive that the beast of the sea in chapter xiii. 1, symbolizes the
Roman _empire_, lose sight of their _own exposition_ when they arrive at
the place before us! And of this bias and inconsistency they seem to be
wholly unconscious! No, there has never yet appeared in the symbolic
heaven a minister or ecclesiastical organization, which has
authoritatively denounced everlasting punishment against all who
"receive the mark of the beast." It is to be noticed here that the sins
charged are _cumulative_, not _distributive_. Guilt is contracted as
here charged, by "worshipping the beast and his image, and receiving his
mark." If the beast signify immoral civil power, and his image signify
the Papacy, as we have seen they do, then it follows that worshipping
both, and receiving the mark of the former, constitute the special guilt
here charged by the angel: that is, eulogizing, praising, and actively
co-operating with civil and ecclesiastical society, at war with the
Bible--in organized hostility to the Lord and his Anointed. (Ps. ii. 9.)
"Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth
mischief by a law?" (Ps. xciv. 20.) But during the 1260 years, the
secular imperial beast consists of "kingdoms of this world" in alliance
with the beast of the earth, (ch. xiii. 1, 11.) And as both are for
their crimes consigned to utter destruction, so in the time of the
"third angel," every individual is threatened with everlasting
punishment, who identifies with them. "No _temporal_ judgments on
_collective_ bodies can be the fulfilment of this awful denunciation,
which evidently relates to _individuals_, and to each individual who is
guilty; and if words can convey the idea of eternal punishment, it is
here denounced."[10] The words in the original, translated "for ever and
ever," (v. 11,) are the strongest in the Greek language to signify
eternity, and are not susceptible of any other meaning.

As already intimated, the special mission and awful message of this
angel is yet future; but the testimony of his predecessor will have made
the tyranny, idolatry, immorality and profligacy of civil despots and
mercenary ministers so palpable and glaring, that the vengeance of the
Lord proclaimed by the last messenger will appear to be just. In this
way the "two witnesses smite the earth with all plagues," (ch. xi. 6;)
for they are identical with the "third angel," and have an active agency
in the work of judgment to be executed upon the antichristian enemies,
(ch. xv. 7.) And "who knows the power of that wrath which is poured out
without mixture into the cup of Jehovah's indignation?" In temporal
judgments there may be a mixture of mercy; but there is no such element
in the cup of the impenitent votaries of mystic Babylon. "Holy angels"
look on without sympathy for her agonies, while the Lamb inflicts the
tremendous penalty of her complicated and long-continued crimes. "_He_
shall be tormented--_their_ torment:"--individuals found guilty of
complicity with Babylon, will be bound up into bundles as fuel for that
fire and brimstone, whose "smoke ascendeth up for ever and ever." "They
have no rest day nor night who worship the beast,"--no mitigation of
their sufferings. They are doomed to dwell "with everlasting burnings."
(Is. xxxiii. 14.) Such are the denunciations which the "third angel" is
commissioned to proclaim in the ears of men, either to bring them to
repentance, or to justify the Lamb in punishing their impenitent
disobedience. Now "every one who is acquainted with the writings of the
reformers and their successors, knows that they generally declared,
without hesitation, that popery is a damnable religion."[11] Popery,
however, is the religion which has corrupted states and churches
throughout the world; and therefore future reformers will not hesitate
to join civil states with her in their testimony and prayers,
saying,--"The wicked shall be turned into hell, _and all the nations_
that forget God. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that have not known
thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name; for they
have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place." (Psa. ix. 17;
lxxix. 6, 7.)

12. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

13. And I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

Vs. 12, 13.--The faithful and pointed testimony of the "third angel" of
reform against the organized enemies of God in church and state, instead
of producing repentance, tends only to provoke them to greater rage
against those who thus awaken their consciences and disturb their sinful
repose. The fires of persecution are again kindled, and the witnesses
are subjected to the anathemas of the church and the sword of the civil
magistrate,--the cruelty of the two beasts. It is therefore
added,--"Here is the patience of the saints." The events predicted here
agree in time with ch. xiii. 10; and the subjects of persecution are the
same moral person in their legitimate successors who appeared in ch.
xii. 17. They "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,"
while the multitude "obey unrighteousness, receiving for doctrines the
commandments of men."

To animate these sufferers who are in "jeopardy every hour" and who have
the sentence of death as outlaws, pronounced against them by Antichrist,
John "heard a voice from heaven," directing him to write,--"Blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth."--To "die in the
Lord,"--means, in the faith and hope of the gospel, relieved by the
"witness of the Spirit" from the overwhelming fears of the pains of
_purgatory_. Both negatively and positively, this angel testifies
against the antichristian dogma of purgatory. He declares that the
torments of the wicked continue "for ever and ever," while the righteous
who die in the Lord, "cease from their labours."--No stronger testimony
can be conceived against the more gross papal heresy, or the more modern
and so called philosophical delusions of Universalists, Socinians and
others,--all of whom are the offspring of the "mother of harlots." But
besides the voice from heaven, and the concurrent witness of the Spirit,
against the papal dogma of purgatory, the "rest" here proclaimed for the
comfort of martyred saints, may be also understood as a termination to
their sharp conflicts with Antichrist. "_Henceforth_ they rest from
their labours,"--they shall never again be called to "resist unto blood,
striving against sin," as heretofore, by the combined opposition of the
"beast and false prophet," organized tyranny and idolatry. The ministry
of the "third angel," cotemporary with the "seventh trumpet,"--the third
and last "woe," prepares society throughout Christendom for entering
into the millennial rest.

14. And I looked, and, behold, a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat
like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his
hand a sharp sickle.

15. And another came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him
that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap; for the time is
come for thee to reap: for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

16. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and
the earth was reaped.

Vs. 14-16.--The gathering in of the harvest is sometimes emblematical of
mercy,--as when the believer is gathered to his fathers by death. His
sanctification being completed, he is taken home "as a shock of corn
ripe in his season." Reaping and threshing, however, are most frequently
symbolical of divine judgments, (Jer. li. 33;) and the apostle refers
here to the same event which the Lord foretold by the mouth of other
prophets. (Joel iii. 13-17; Micah iv. 12, 13.) This harvest is
emblematical of divine judgment on the nations of apostate Christendom.
He who executes the judgment is one like the Son of man, the Lord
Christ. Enthroned on a "white cloud" as his chariot, and having on his
royal "head a golden crown," the symbol of sovereignty, at the
solicitation, the loud cry of the symbolic angel,--a gospel ministry, he
"thrusts in his "sharp sickle," the emblem of avenging justice, and with
infinite ease, "the earth is reaped." This work of punishing guilty
_nations_ is not so proper to the ministry, the functions of whose
office are of a spiritual nature; yet are they active in a way competent
to them, calling upon the "Lord of the harvest" to reap. They judge of
the signs of the times. Such is part of their appropriate work. Thus
they say,--"The time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the
earth is ripe." The Lord Jesus appeared in royal majesty to John, as he
had appeared to Ezekiel, (ch. i. 26;) and to Daniel, (ch. vii. 13.) The
cloud on which he sat had a bright side towards his saints, but to his
enemies a dark side, as at the Red Sea. (Ex. xiv. 19, 20.)

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