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Notes On The Apocalypse by David Steele

D >> David Steele >> Notes On The Apocalypse





1. And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a
cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face as it were the sun,
and his feet as pillars of fire:

2. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot
upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,

3. And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had
cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.

Vs. 1-3.--The majestic description of this Angel agrees to no creature.
It is proper to God-man only. It is partly the same display of the
Mediator's glory which we had in ch, i. 15. Especially is this the case
as to his _face_, his _feet_ and his _voice_. The "rainbow" is still the
sign of the everlasting covenant. "In wrath he remembers mercy."

This "book" differs from the _sealed_ book as a part from the whole, or
a codicil from the will to which it is appended. Also, it is
distinguished from the former as being _little_ and _open_. They do
therefore greatly err here, who would make this little book comprehend
all the remaining part of the Apocalypse, which would make it larger
than the sealed book. The little book is _open_, because it is part of
the large one, from which the last seal had been removed by the
Mediator. But another reason why the little book is represented as being
open, is the fact that the most of the events to which it refers, had
transpired prior to the sounding of the seventh trumpet. That trumpet
had been without its appropriate object, as presented in any preceding
part of the prophecy. To present that object is the special design of
the little book. All the events predicted in this book of Revelation are
not successive in the order of time, but some are coincident; and the
inspired writer of the Apocalypse, on several occasions goes back, as we
shall see, in order to explain at greater length, what had been but
briefly and obscurely narrated.

The angel set his feet upon the world, as his footstool; by which
position is emblematically signified his sovereign dominion over sea and
earth. And this is agreeable to his own plain teaching in the days of
his public ministry:--"All power is given unto me in heaven and in
earth." (Matt. xxviii. 18.) He trod upon the billows of the ocean
literally in the state of his humiliation, giving thereby evidence of
his power over the mystical waters,--"the tumults of the people." During
the popular commotions signified by the trumpets, he said to the raging
passions of men and their towering ambition, as to the waves of the
sea,--" Hitherto shall ye come, and no further; and here shall your
proud waves be stayed." "He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves
thereof are still;" and whether the nations of Christendom are at war or
in peaceful tranquillity, he reigns over them as their rightful
sovereign;--"his right foot on the sea, and his left on the earth." In
possession of universal dominion, he speaks with authority, "as when a
lion roareth." Although a lamb slain, the victim for our sins; he is
also the Lion of the tribe of Judah, ruling over his own people,
restraining and conquering his own and their enemies.

The "seven thunders," etc., give a _premonition_ of tremendous
judgments, the import of which is to be "sealed up" until it be
demonstrated to all the world by the seventh trumpet and vial.


4. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to
write: and I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Seal up those
things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.

5. And the angel, which I saw stand upon the sea, and upon the earth,
lifted up his hand to heaven,

6. And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven,
and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are
therein, that there should be time no longer.

7. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall
begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath
declared to his servants the prophets.

Vs. 4-7.--The attitude assumed by the Angel of the covenant is very
impressive, instructive and exemplary:--"his hand lifted up to heaven."
This is the external attitude of solemnity most becoming the jurant when
performing the act of religious worship, the oath. Abraham, in the
presence of the king of Sodom, used the same form, appealing to the
"Lord, the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth." (Gen. xiv.
22.) "Kissing the book" has no example in all the Bible; hence it is
unquestionably of heathen, and so of idolatrous origin and tendency. No
Christian can thus symbolize with heathens, without so far "having
fellowship with devils" as really as in eating in their temples. (1 Cor.
x. 21.)

The matter of the Angel's oath is,--"that there should be time no
longer." Here it is humbly suggested that our excellent translators are
faulty as in ch. iv. 6, already noticed. Neither the original Greek
text, nor the coherence of the symbolic narrative, will sustain or
justify the version. John, like all pious people, when he heard the
lion's voice, followed by the "seven thunders," was filled with solemn
awe, anticipating the coming dissolution of all things. It was not the
only instance of his weakness and misapprehension, (ch. xix. 10;) nor is
this infirmity peculiar to the apostle John; for we find other disciples
mistaking "the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his
own power." (2 Thess. ii. 1-3.) These Thessalonians had misapprehended
the language of Paul in his first epistle to them, when speaking of the
end of the world. (1 Thess. iv. 15-17.) To relieve the anxieties of the
Thessalonians, relative to the apprehended and sudden coming of the
Lord, Paul wrote again to correct their mistake; so it may be supposed
that the Angel interposed this solemn assurance to his servant John, for
the like purpose, of allaying his forebodings. The words in the
original, literally translated, stand thus: "That the time shall not be
yet." That is, the "time of the end," as we read in Daniel xii. 9, shall
not be, till the seventh trumpet begins to sound. The phrase,--"time of
the end," may signify either the final overthrow of antichristian power,
or the end of the world, because of the resemblance between the two
events. The plain and certain meaning, then, of the Angel's oath is,
that the "mystery of God shall be finished" only by the work of the
seventh angel. What this mystery is, we will discover in the following
chapters. Indeed, it had been long before "declared to the prophets,"
but still accompanied with comparative obscurity suitable to their time;
for the word "declared," is expressive of glad tidings, being the same
in origin and significance as that which we translate,--_gospel_, good
news. Accordingly, our Saviour directs his disciples, in view of his
appearing either to overthrow the Roman power, or to judge the world, in
the following words of cheer: "And when these things begin to come to
pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth
nigh." (Luke xxi. 28.) To the prophet Daniel the same event was attested
with like solemnity. (Dan. xii. 7.) This is the period to which the
suffering saints of God have been long looking forward with believing
and joyful hope. As Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day of appearing in
our nature, and by faith saw and it and was glad; so the covenanted seed
of the father of the faithful, in the light of prophecy, and by like
precious faith, are favored with a view of the certain downfall of
mystical Babylon.


8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and
said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel
which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.

9. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little
book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy
belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

10. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up;
and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it, my
belly was bitter.

11. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples,
and nations, and tongues, and kings.

Vs. 8-11.--John is next directed by a voice from heaven, or by divine
authority,--to take and eat the open book. There is obvious allusion to
a similar transaction in Ezekiel iii, 1-3. The prophet was a captive by
the river of Chebar in Babylon, under the dominion of the _first_ beast
of Daniel, as John was in Patmos under that of the _fourth_; and both
were favoured and employed by the glorious Head of the church in an
eminent part of their ministry. "The word is not bound" when ministers
are in confinement.

The "eating of the book" represents the intellectual apprehension of the
things which it contained.

"Thy words were found and I did eat them,"(Jer. xv. 16.) A speculative
knowledge of the word of God, and especially of those parts that are
prophetical, will afford pleasure to the human intellect, even though
the mind be unsanctified. (Matt. xiii. 20, 21.) But when the prophet
gets a farther insight into the contents as containing "lamentations,
and mourning and woe," like Ezekiel's roll;--the pleasure is converted
into pain. A foresight of the sorrows and sufferings of Christ's
witnesses causes grief to the Christian's sensitive heart. He "weeps
with them that weep," by the spontaneous sympathies of a common and
renewed nature. "Sweet in the mouth as honey, but in the belly bitter as
wormwood and gall."

Upon the apostle's digesting the little book, the Angel interprets the
symbolic action by the plain and extensive commission,--"Thou must
prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and
kings." This commission did not terminate with the ministry of the
apostle, although he may be truly said to prophesy by the Apocalypse to
all nations till the end of the world. This is equally true, however, of
all the inspired penmen of the Holy Scriptures. (Psalm xlv. 17.) But
John is to be considered here as the official representative of a living
and faithful ministry, on whom devolves the indispensable obligation to
open and apply these sacred predictions to the commonwealth of nations,
however constituted authorities may be affected by them. And, indeed,
these messages will prove unwelcome to the immoral powers of the earth,
as in the days of old. (1 Kings xviii. 17.)




CHAPTER XI.


The narrative of prophetic events was broken off at the end of the ninth
chapter. The tenth chapter and the greater part of this, from the
beginning to the thirteenth verse inclusive, present appearances and
actions quite foreign to the events which follow the sounding of the
trumpets. Why is this, the thoughtful student of the Apocalypse will
naturally ask? Why is the regular series of the trumpets suspended? When
the sixth trumpet,--the "second woe,"--has effected its objects, we
naturally expect the seventh trumpet to sound; yet we are held in
suspense till we come to the fourteenth verse of this chapter. Hitherto
we have met with no similar interruption. Let us take a retrospective
view:--The seven epistles to the churches followed each other in regular
succession. The seals, in like manner, followed successively; and this
is true of the vials, (ch. xvi.)

We have seen that the object of the trumpets was the Roman empire, the
fourth beast of Daniel's prophecy. The same is the object of the
judgments symbolized by the vials. The final subversion and utter
destruction of that beastly power, was plainly revealed in the
Babylonian monarch's dream. (Dan. ii. 44.) And the same event was
afterwards exhibited in vision to Daniel, (ch. vii. 11, 26.) Now the
first four trumpets had demolished imperial power in the western or
Latin section; and the next two, by the Saracenic locusts and the
Euphratean horsemen had subverted the eastern or Greek section. Rome and
Constantinople were the capitals of the respective sections or members
of the _one_ empire. Under the first four trumpets, by the Northern
barbarians; and under the first two woes, by the Mahometans, both
sections of the empire were overthrown. The question now presses upon
our attention, Where shall we find an object for the tremendous judgment
to be inflicted by the third and last woe? This question requires a
solution. It demands it; and he who succeeds in the application of
history to solve this apparent enigma in the Apocalypse, will be able to
attain to a satisfactory, a certain, understanding of much that is yet
to most readers as if the "sealed book" were to this day in the "right
hand of Him that sitteth on the throne." Let us humbly attempt to solve
this difficulty.

Daniel's fourth beast, the Roman empire, is to be contemplated in
_diverse aspects_, as the varied symbols obviously require. All know
that Nebuchadnezzar's "image" is the same as Daniel's "four beasts;"
therefore the same thing is presented in different forms or aspects. Of
course we are to view that object as presented. We have seen that under
the sixth seal, (ch. vi. 12-17,) the Roman empire underwent a
revolution; that is, it was destroyed as to its Pagan form. The empire
became Christian under Constantine. History proves that Christianity
degenerated under the reign of that monarch and his successors. Heresy,
idolatry and persecutions characterize the subsequent history of the
empire. Then follow the judgments of the trumpets to vindicate the
divine government, and alleviate from time to time the sufferings of
true Christians. While the two woe-trumpets are demolishing the fabric
of idolatry and despotism in the east, the "deadly wound is healed" in
the west, which had been inflicted by the first four trumpets. Ten horns
are developed upon the beast's head, and another "little horn," by all
of which the saints suffer, as had been predicted by Daniel, (ch. vii.
24,) and of which we had intimation after the judgment of the second woe
or sixth trumpet, (ch. ix. 20, 21.) All the "plagues," which had been
inflicted upon the people of Christendom under this trumpet left them
still impenitent,--"worshipping devils," etc. Surely we may now see
where the object of the third woe is to be found,--namely in the same
Roman empire, now become antichristian more than ever before. To
describe this antichristian combination and present the unholy
confederacy against the Lord and his Anointed, and so to justify the
ways of God; it was necessary to digress from the narrative of the
trumpets. We now proceed with our observations on the eleventh chapter.


1. And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood,
saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them
that worship therein.

2. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it
not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they
tread under foot forty and two months.

Vs. 1, 2.--This chapter, (vs. 1-13,) gives the contents of the "little
book" delivered to the apostle; as in the tenth chapter. It contains a
brief description and prospective history of the true church of Christ
for a period of 1260 years. Her conflicts with Daniel's fourth beast are
here epitomized. As the scene is laid in the temple and ministry all
along in the Apocalypse, so there is probably a special allusion here to
Ezekiel's vision, (ch. xl. 5.) At all times the Christian church is to
be organized, and all her ordinances to be administered by divine rule.
Accordingly we have here presented the actual condition of Christendom
during the whole time mentioned above. The command to John from the
Angel, is to be understood as from the Lord Jesus, Zion's only king to
the gospel ministry. Long before the time of the transactions here
predicted, the apostle John had gone the way of all the earth. The work
here enjoined was to be performed by his legitimate successors.

The reed is the symbol of the word of God. It is of the same import as
Zechariah's "measuring line." (ch. ii. 1,) and to be used for the same
purpose--"to measure Jerusalem," the temple; for both are emblematical
of the church of God. The "temple, altar and worshippers," are emblems
of the church, her doctrines, worship and membership, tried by the
Scriptures--the "reed." There are Gentiles who worship in the outer
court, treading under foot both it and the city. These are formal,
immoral, idolatrous professors of Christianity. They are rejected by God
as reprobate, and by his command to be "cast out" from the fellowship of
his people,--authoritatively excommunicated by those to whom Jesus
Christ has given the key of discipline.

Here then, at the disclosing of the contents of the little open book, it
is manifest that John goes back from the sixth trumpet in the
seventeenth century, when the Eastern section of the Roman empire was
subverted, by the Othmans, and gives us another view of society in
Christendom cotemporaneously with the trumpets. It follows necessarily
that the little book does not rank, as some imagine, under any one
trumpet; much less does it comprehend all the remaining chapters of the
Apocalypse, as others vainly suppose. This matter will receive
increasing confirmation as we advance.

Those who worship within the temple and those who worship without, are
evidently distinguished from each other. They differ in character tested
by the word of God, in fellowship, as authoritatively separated
according to the rule of the same word: for whereas the gentile
worshippers are so numerous as to crowd both the outer court and the
city, the measured worshippers are all included within the confines of
the temple, (Song iv. 12.) _Measuring_ is equivalent to the _sealing_ of
the servants of God in the seventh chapter; and imports that they are
secured from the sins and plagues of their time. The period of the
apostacy from God is fixed to "forty and two months." According to
Jewish mode of reckoning, a day for a year, (Num. xiv. 34; Dan. ix. 24,)
the whole period is 1260 years. Each month has thirty days. Multiply
forty-two by thirty, and we have 1260. The _same_ period of time,--not
merely an equal period, is otherwise expressed by the prophet Daniel
thus: "time, times, and a half." (ch. xii. 7.) That is, 360, the number
of days in the Jewish year: times, or 720, the days in two years; and
half a time, or 180, the days in half a year. Now, add these three
numbers, 360, 720, 180; and the sum is 1260. Now see Daniel iv. 25,
where the word "times" means _years_, and then a child may calculate
these mystical numbers.


3. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy
a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

V. 3.--While the nominal church, "the outer court and the holy city,"
would be "trodden under foot," and the most eminent places would be
filled with idolaters, infidels, hypocrites, and mercenary spirits, and
true Christians grievously oppressed, the Lord would preserve a faithful
few from defiling themselves with the prevailing abominations. These he
claims and owns as his "peculiar treasure,"--"my witnesses." These have
found that it was "good for them to draw near to God," when the
multitude treacherously departed from him. The Lord Christ promises to
sustain them in the midst of all their tribulations. The duration of
their special work is the very same as that of the treading of the holy
city, "a thousand two hundred and three score days,"--1260 years. In
attempting to fix the beginning of this period, Daniel and John must be
compared; both treat of the same events and dates, and this gives
definiteness to the interpretation. Daniel fixes these events to the
fourth monarchy _after_ it had been _broken in pieces_, and the ten
horns had arisen: (ch. vii. 23-25;) so that we have both the geography
and chronology determined by the prophets themselves. Hence it follows
that we must date the beginning of the 1260 years after the first four
trumpets; for by these the western Roman empire was dismembered or
broken, that the ten horns might appear. Then the "little horn" of
Daniel arose after and among them, (ch. vii. 20, 24.) All reliable
expositors agree that the "little horn" is the papacy or the Romish
church. This little horn is the special enemy of the "saints of the Most
High," and they are to be "given into his hand." (Dan. vii. 25.) The
first four trumpets subverted the Roman empire in the west in the latter
part of the sixth century. This event made way for the bishop of Rome,
in process of time, to acquire a great accession of ecclesiastical
power. The civil and ecclesiastical rulers, equally unscrupulous and
aspiring, were at this period on terms of comparative intimacy, and
occasionally disposed to reciprocate good offices. Phocas, having waded
through the blood of the citizens to supreme civil power, in order to
secure his position, declared Boniface III., bishop of Rome, head of the
universal church. This impious public act took place in the year 606.
The pope became also a temporal prince in 756. Now we cannot know _with
certainty_ which of these events, nor indeed whether _either_ of them,
marks the period in time when the 1260 years _began_. Hence we must
remain at uncertainty as to the exact time when this most interesting
period will end. Of all transactions recorded in history, however, that
between Phocas and Boniface appears most like "giving the saints into
the hand of the little horn." At this juncture in particular, church and
state conspire, as never before, to resist the authority of Jesus Christ
the Mediator. Paul's "man of sin" has been "revealed in his time." (2
Thess. ii. 6.) Paganism has been abolished by formal edict throughout
the Roman empire, and Christianity established as the recognised
religion of the commonwealth. That which "letted,"--hindered, that is,
the pagan idolatry of the civil state, is "taken out of the way;" and
nominal Christianity takes its place. This combination or alliance
between church and state will be more clearly made known in the
succeeding chapters of this book. Mean while it is the immediate design
of the "little open book," to give an epitome or outline of this unholy
confederacy in the first thirteen verses of this chapter. The treading
under foot of the holy city by the "Gentiles," furnishes occasion for
the witnesses to appear publicly against them. These pretended
Christians, but real hypocrites, as will appear with increasing evidence
as we proceed, have usurped the rights of Messiah's crown, and
grievously oppressed his real disciples. Against these outrages on the
prerogatives of Christ and the rights of man, these witnesses lift their
solemn protest. Their distinctive name, "witnesses," is familiar to
every one who searches the Scriptures. (Isa. xliii. 10; Acts i. 8.) But
witnesses who love not their lives unto the death are distinguished by
the name of _martyrs_. (Rev. ii. 13; Acts xxii. 20.)

God has had his witnesses in all ages since the fall of Adam, in defence
of truth and holiness against error and ungodliness; but the specific
work _these_ witnesses is to oppose the corruption of his two ordinances
of church and state during the specified period of 1260 years. The
existence of this complex system of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny and
heresy, in the holy purpose and sovereign providence of God, calls for
the public and uncompromising opposition of the two witnesses. We shall
discover the two parties in more visible conflict hereafter; and tracing
the struggle to its issue, we shall find, that like the more general and
lasting warfare between the seed of the woman and that of the serpent,
(Gen. iii. 15,) it is a "war of extermination."

These witnesses are distinguished as a part from the whole. All
witnesses are not _martyrs_, but these are such, (v. 7, ch. xx. 4.) And
here we are constrained to dissent from the opinion of some expositors,
for whose sentiments we entertain profound respect. These "two
witnesses" are supposed by these eminent interpreters to "differ as much
from the 144,000 sealed ones, (ch. vii. 4,) as Elijah differed from the
7000 in Israel in his time;" whereas, we think the 144,000 and the
_two_, are the same identical company. (See chapters vii. 4-8: xiv. 1;
xx. 4.) It is evident that they are the same party,--and the _whole_ of
the party, who are honored to "reign with Christ a thousand years," (ch.
xx. 4.)

They are _two_ in number, because one witness is not sufficient in law,
to establish any matter in controversy. (Num. xxxv. 30; 2 Cor. xiii. 1.)
They are a small number compared with their opponents, (ch. xiii. 3.)
Again, they are few, but sufficient to confront and confute their two
opponents, (ch. xiii. 1, 11.) And, finally, they are _two_, that they
may be assimilated to their predecessors.


4. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing
before the God of the earth.

5. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth,
and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in
this manner be killed.

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Obituary: Donald Westlake

The disputed Holocaust memoir, written by Herman Rosenblat, which was dropped from Penguin Group's publication schedule at the end of December is now set to appear as a work of fiction.

Rosenblat's memoir - which Oprah Winfrey called "the single greatest love story" she had heard in two decades in television - recounted how as a teenage boy in a Nazi concentration camp, he was kept alive by the food which was thrown to him by a young girl, Roma Radzicky. Penguin's US imprint Berkley Books had planned to publish the story, which sees Rosenblat reunited with Radzicky on a blind date years later, as Angel at the Fence: the True Story of a Love That Survived, next month.

But a Holocaust historian said it would have been impossible to approach the fence in the Schlieben concentration camp to throw food over it, concluding that this part of the story was made-up. Berkley initially defended the book, saying it was a work of memory, but then decided to cancel its planned publication, and demanded the return of the advance it had made to Rosenblat. A $25m film based on the book, to be called The Flower of the Fence, is still going ahead, with production due to start this year.

Publisher York House Press based in White Plains, New York, has entered into a tentative agreement with the film production company to publish a novel based on the film script early this spring. It said the book would be "grounded in fact", and would rise "to the proper levels of artistic value, ethical conduct and social responsibility".

A spokesperson for York House Press condemned the attacks which were made on the 80-year-old Rosenblat after the veracity of his story was questioned, describing them as a "savage" response to what was otherwise "a credible, heart-wrenching, and verifiable account" of his time in the concentration camp.

"No deliberate untruth is permissible, but beneath any fabrication is motivation and intent. We believe Mr. Rosenblat's motivations were very human, understandable and forgivable," the spokesperson said. "It is beyond our expertise to know how Holocaust survivors cope with their trauma. Do they deny, try to forget, rationalise or fantasise and promote fiction along with truth? Perhaps the coping mechanisms are as individual as the survivors themselves."

The president of the company producing the film, Harris Salomon from Atlantic Overseas Productions, said the book, "regardless of its shortcomings", would "challenge, educate and enlighten" readers about the horrors of the Holocaust. "The documented fact, acknowledged by his critics, is that Herman is a survivor of concentration camps," he said.

But Rosenblat's agent, Andrea Hurst, said that neither she nor Rosenblat were involved with this version of his story. "Usually book rights from films come out after the movie is released," she told guardian.co.uk. "I think the timing on this is very insensitive."

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