The Apocalypse
An Introduction
"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him,
to show unto His servants that which must come to pass speedily; and He
signified [it] sending by His angel to His servant John; who attested the word
of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, what things soever he saw. Blessed
he who readeth, and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and observe the
things which are written in it: for the time [is] near." Revelation 1:1-3
(Revised Text)
The words which I have announced for our present
consideration, give us the Divine Preface or superscription to this book. They
are meant to advise the reader as to that with which he is about to deal, and
to prepare him to appreciate what is to follow. They relate to three leading
points:
I. THE SUBJECT AND CONTENTS OF THE BOOK.
II. ITS DERIVATION
AND AUTHORSHIP.
III. ITS VALUE AND PRECIOUSNESS.
Let us look
briefly at these several particulars.
The
Subject – A Revelation Of Christ
What concerns the subject
and contents of this book, I find for the most part in the name that it gives
itself. It is the common rule with Scripture names to express the substance of
the things to which they are applied. The name of God expresses what God is; it
is the same with the names of the Lord Jesus Christ and all the leading names
found in the Bible. Even those that the Church has given are often wonderfully
expressive and significant. Genesis is the generation of things; Exodus the
going forth from bondage; The Gospel, the very heart and substance of all God's
gracious communications – the good news. And when God Himself designates
this book The Revelation of Jesus Christ, we may rest assured that it is the
very substance and kernel of the book that is expressed in this title.
What, then, are we to understand by "The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ"? There are
certain books (adopted and held sacred by the Church of Rome, which we,
however, receive only as human productions), that have a name somewhat similar
to this in sound. You find them in some Bibles, between the Old and New
Testaments, bearing the name of Apocrypha. But Apocrypha is just the opposite
of Apocalypse. Apocrypha means something that is concealed, not set forth, not
authentic; Apocalypse means something revealed, disclosed, manifested, shown.
The verb apokalupto means to reveal, to make manifest, to uncover to view. The
noun apokalupsis, means a revelation, a disclosure, an appearing, a making
manifest. The Apocalypse, or Revelation of Jesus Christ, must therefore be the
revealment, manifestation, appearing, of Jesus Christ.
Some accept the
words as if they were meant to express the revealment of the Revelation. This I
take to be a mistake, and a vital mistake, as regards any right interpretation
of this book. It is not the Apocalypse that is the subject of the disclosure.
This book is not the Apocalypse of the Apocalypse, but The Apocalypse of JESUS
CHRIST.
This is the key to the whole book. It is a book of which
Christ is the great subject and centre, particularly in that period of His
administrations and glory designated as the day of His uncovering, the day of
His appearing. It is not a mere prediction of divine judgments upon the wicked,
and of the final triumph of the righteous, made known by Christ. It is a book
of the revelation of Christ, in His own person, offices, and future
administrations, when He shall be seen coming from heaven, as He was once seen
going into heaven.
If "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" meant nothing
more than certain communications made known by Christ, I can see no
significance or propriety in affixing this title to this book, rather than to
any other books of holy Scripture. Are they not all alike the revelation of
Jesus Christ, in this sense? Does not Peter say of the inspired writers in
general, that they were moved by the Spirit of Christ that was in them? Why
then single out this particular book as " The Revelation of Jesus Christ," when
it is no more the gift of Jesus than any other inspired book? Besides, it would
be particularly strange, that this book should be so specially designated "The
Revelation of Jesus Christ " in the sense of revelation by Christ, when the
book itself declares that it was not received from Christ, but from an angel or
messenger of Christ.
These considerations alone ought to satisfy us
that there is something more distinctive and characteristic in this title than
is embraced in its ordinary acceptation. For my own part, I am perfectly
convinced, from a review of the places in which the word occurs in the New
Testament, as well as from all the contents of this particular part of it, that
The Apocalypse, or Revelation of Jesus Christ, means Jesus Christ revealed and
uncovered to mortal view; and not merely Jesus Christ revealing, and making
known hidden things to be recorded for our learning. Let me refer to passages
bearing upon the case.
Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians
(1:7), speaks of them as enriched in every spiritual gift, confirmed in the
testimony of Christ, and "waiting for the Apocalypse, the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ." The original word here is exactly the same as that in our text;
the structure of the sentence is also much the same, but no one mistakes its
meaning for a moment. All agree that it refers to Christ in His revelation from
heaven, when He shall come in the clouds with power and great glory. And if
such is its unmistakable meaning here, why not take it in the same sense in the
text?
So in 2 Thessalonians (1:6-10) he refers his readers to a time
of rest, "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven (literally, at the
Apocalypse of the Lord), with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking
vengeance on them that know not God – when He shall come to be glorified
in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." No one
misunderstands what The Apocalypse of the Lord Jesus is in this passage. Paul
himself explains it to be His coming, in just such administrations as were
shown John in this book.
With the meaning of this word thus
established, what can that book be, of which it is descriptive, but an account
of the revelation of Christ in His personal forthcoming from His present
invisible estate, to receive His Bride, judge the wicked, and set up His
eternal kingdom on the earth.
With this also agrees the statement of
John as to the circumstances under which he came to the knowledge of the things
which he narrates. He says he "was in Spirit in the Lord's day," in which he
beheld what he afterwards wrote. What is meant by this Lord's day? Some answer,
Sunday – the first day of the week; but I am not satisfied with this
explanation. Sunday belongs indeed to the Lord, but the Scriptures nowhere call
it " the Lord's day." None of the Christian writings, for 100 years after
Christ, ever call it "the Lord's day." But there is a "Day of the Lord" largely
treated of by prophets, apostles, and fathers, the meaning of which is
abundantly clear and settled.
It is that day in which, Isaiah says,
men shall hide in the rocks for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His
majesty; the day which Joel describes as the day of destruction from the
Almighty, when the Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from
Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; the day to which the
closing chapter of Malachi refers as the day that shall burn as an oven, and in
which the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.
It is the day which Paul proclaimed from Mars Hill as that in which God will
judge the world, concerning which he so earnestly exhorted the Thessalonians,
and which was not to come until after a great apostasy from the faith, and the
ripening of the wicked for destruction. This is the day in which, Peter says,
the heavens shall be changed, the elements melt, the earth burn, and all
present orders of things give way to new heavens and a new earth.
I
understand John to say that he in some sense was in that day. In the mysteries
of prophetic rapport, which the Scriptures describe as "in Spirit" and which
Paul declared inexplicable, John was caught out of himself and out of his
proper place and time. He was stationed amid the stupendous scenes of the great
day of God, and made to see the actors in them, and to look upon them
transpiring before his eyes, that he might write what he saw, and give it to
the Churches.
This is what I understand by his being "in Spirit in the
Lord's day." And if John was thus mystically down among the scenes of the last
day and has written only what he says he has written – that is, "things
that he saw," – it cannot be otherwise but that in dealing with the
contents of this book, we are dealing with what relates preeminently to the
great Apocalypse and Epiphany of our Lord when He comes to judge the world in
righteousness.
The Contents – A
Progressive Manifestation Of The Glory Of Jesus Christ
When we
come to consider the actual contents of this book, we find them harmonising
exactly with this understanding of its title. It takes as its chief and
unmistakable themes what other portions of the Scriptures assign to the great
day of the Lord. It is nothing but Apocalypse from beginning to end.
First we have the Apocalypse of Christ in His relation to the earthly
Churches, and His judgment of them. Then is the Apocalypse of His relation to
the glorified Church, and the marshalling of them for His coming forth to judge
the world. Then there is the Apocalypse of His relation to the scenes of the
judgment as they are manifested on earth under the opening of the seals, the
prophesying of the witnesses, and the fall of Babylon. Next is the Apocalypse
of His actual manifestation to the world in the battle of the great day of God
Almighty, the es-tablishment of His kingdom, and the investiture of the saints
in their future sovereignties. Finally, there is the Apocalypse of His relation
to the final act of judgment – the destruction of death and the grave
– and the introduction of the final estate of a perfected Redemption.
What is all this but just what was foretold by all the prophets, by
Christ Himself, and by all His apostles, as pertaining to THE DAY OF THE LORD?
Truly, this book is but the rehearsal, in an ampler manner, of what all the
Scriptures tell us about the last day and the eternal judgment. It is
preeminently The Apocalypse and Epiphany of Jesus Christ.
Its Authorship – A Gift From God
Notice
now its derivation and authorship. The text represents it as the gift of God to
Christ. It is called "The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him."
Some understand this gift in the sense of signified, made known to; and so put
themselves under the necessity of explaining how this could be without
compromising our Lord's Divinity. This is the first difficulty engendered by
the departure from the proper scriptural meaning of the word Apocalypse. People
take it as denoting a piece of information, and so represent Christ in a state
of ignorance respecting the most sublime results of His role of mediator until
after His ascension into heaven. The incongruities of such an acceptation
should teach men better.
The Apocalypse of Christ is the future
reappearance of Christ, clothed with the honours and crowned with the triumphs
which are to characterise that forthcoming, and not the mere knowledge or
description of these things. And it is that Apocalypse, with all its glorious
concomitants and results, that God has, in covenant, given to Christ –
given to Him as the crowning reward of His mediatorial work, as the Scriptures
everywhere teach. The promise of the victory of the woman's seed involved this
gift. Hannah's song speaks of it as strength and exaltation that the Lord
bestows upon His anointed. God's promise to David of a son whose kingdom is to
be established forever embraces it. It is the great theme of the second Psalm
where God says to His son, "I shall give you the heathen for your inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them
with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." It
is in Isaiah's pictures of Messiah, in Jeremiah's prophecies, in the words of
the annunciation to Mary, in Christ's own parables, and in all the writings of
the Apostles.
Because Christ "made Himself of no reputation, and took
upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and
humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,
God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and
things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians
2:7-11).
We are told that there was joy set before Christ as the
reward of His sufferings and death, and that it was "for the joy that was set
before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2).
And whatever else may be included in that exaltation or that joy, highest and
greatest of all is a future Apocalypse, when "the Son of man shall come in His
glory, and all the holy angels with Him, and He shall sit upon the throne of
His glory" (Matthew 25:31). This, then, is what God "gave to Jesus Christ" in
promise when He commenced His work, in its earnest when He raised Him from the
dead and received Him into glory; and thus gave what constitutes the substance
of this book.
But as the full manifestation of this endowment of
Christ is still future, and it is important for His followers to be well
informed concerning it, the blessed Saviour, after His ascension, took measures
to have the facts becomingly communicated to His servants on earth.
The Channels Of Communication
"And He sent and signified [the same] by His angel." In stating who this angel
was, I do not venture to be specific. His own account of himself to John, was,
" I am thy fellow-servant, and of your brothers the prophets, and of those that
keep the sayings of this book" (Revelation 22: 9).
From this, it has
been thought that he was one of the old prophets, or some one standing in a
closer relation to Christ and the Church than can be affirmed of angels proper.
This view is also somewhat confirmed by the fact that, while the angels are
called "ministering spirits" (Hebrews 1:14), they are not called "God's
servants," nor fellows of the prophets and apostles, as in the case before us.
Let it suffice, however, for us to know that it was some heavenly messenger,
commissioned by the Lord Jesus in glory to come and make known these
apocalyptic wonders.
"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth
to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14). But
there is still another link in the chain of agencies through which the great
things of this book have been made known to men. Given of God, sent by Christ,
signified by an angel, they were finally recorded by John, and by him
communicated to the Churches.
Nor need we be in doubt as to what John
this is. The text describes him as that "John, who attested the word of God,
and the testimony of Jesus Christ." And who is it that the Churches from the
beginning have known as the attestor of the Logos, or Word of God, and of the
testimony that Christ gave, but John the Apostle, the beloved disciple?
Turn to the Gospel by John and see that it is wholly taken up with
exactly these things. The first chapter gives the only full account which the
Scriptures contain respecting the pre-existence of the Logos, or Word, in the
Godhead, and the fact that the Word is also Him who was born of Mary, who
tabernacled in the flesh, and was called Jesus of Nazareth. Was not this
bearing "record of the Word of God"?
Do we not find another summary of
the same testimony in the first chapter of his first epistle? What else does he
mean by the account which he gives of his testimony, when he says, "That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life,
declare we unto you"? Are not both his first and second epistles but arguments
– against various evil spirits which were gone abroad – that Jesus is
the Word of God, the only Christ, the Son of God, and that all who deny this
are liars and Antichrist? I conclude, therefore, upon the solid basis of God's
own identification of the author of this book, that it was the Apostle John who
wrote it.
Such then is the exalted source and derivation of this
wonderful production. It takes its origin in God's covenant gift to Jesus
Christ as the reward of triumph and glory for His humiliation and obedience
unto death. It was sent by the loving Saviour from heaven, in the charge of an
angelic messenger, to be shown to John. And by the hands of "that disciple whom
Jesus loved," thus visited in his lonely exile – emblem of that
consolation in distress with which this book has ever irradiated the dark and
gloomy days of the Church – was traced out in the language of mortals, and
delivered over as Christ's last message to His people on earth.
The Value Of This Book – "Blessed Is He
Who Reads It."
I would like to say a word or two now as to the
value and preciousness of this book. This book is a gift that the Great God
thinks a befitting honour and compensation to Christ for all His great deeds of
love and condescension. It is a thing which the blessed Lord in heaven esteemed
of sufficient importance to be made known by a special messenger, that holy
angels considered it an honour to be permitted to communicate, and that the
tenderness of the disciple of love so conscientiously recorded for the comfort
and admonition of the people of God in every age. Certainly is not a thing of
trifling significance.
If we are interested in the story of the manger
and the cross; if we can draw strength for our prayers and hopes by invoking
Christ by the mystery of His incarnation, fasting, temptation, agony, and
bloody sweat; if we find it such a precious treasure to our souls to come into
undoubting sympathy with the scenes of His humiliation and grief; what should
be our appreciation of this book that treats of the fruits of those sufferings
and tells only of that wronged Saviour's glory and triumphs? How should we
value this book that shows us our Lord enthroned in majesty, riding
prosperously, and scattering to His ransomed ones the crowns and regencies of
governmental authority which shall never perish, and celestial blessedness
without number and above all thought!
"All Scripture," indeed, "is
profitable, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good
works" (2 Timothy 3:16-17), but there are some portions more especially
significant and precious. Proper attention to these particular sections is
fraught with particular advantages. Of this sort is this book of the Revelation
of Jesus Christ.
What does the text say? "Blessed is he that reads,
and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are
written therein." The same is repeated in chapter 22:7. "Blessed is he that
keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book."
Of course, the more
we learn and know of Christ, the better it will be for us – if the spirit
of faith and obedience be in our hearts – and this book is pre-eminently
the Revelation of Christ. It sets out our blessed Lord, and draws away the veil
that hangs between us and Him, and lifts us up into the most sublime things of
heaven. It shows us how the Son of man has been rewarded by the Father, and
what works and offices are assigned unto that meek Lamb. It shows us the
history of our Saviour's person, all-glorious and exalted, and His great
ministrations in the Church and in the universe, until His coming again from
the throne and in the power of the Father, with all the armies of heaven with
Him.
Above all it dwells upon that great Apocalypse – the
condition in which it will find the world, what it will bring to His prepared
and waiting saints, what it will inflict upon lukewarm believers, infidels, and
evil-doers, and what will be the character and issues of that great day of God
Almighty. It tells what the Church will be until Christ comes, what it will be
in that period of dreadful trial, what Satan and his children will attempt, and
how the Lord Jesus shall trample them down under the glory of His power. It
shows how He will raise the dead, renew the world, and set up forever His
blessed reign in it. It shows us what will be the final triumphs and rewards of
the saints for their present grief and toils. It tells what will be the future
of our world and how it is to be renewed, cleansed, beautified, and invested
with heavenly excellencies. It also displays how the light, and knowledge and
glory of God is to become its eternal possession.
Looking To The Future
It is always important
for us to be forewarned with regard to the future. It is our nature to be
forecasting, and it is one of the necessities of our well-being to be able to
anticipate with accuracy, at least with regard to the leading things that shall
concern us. He who does not shape the conduct of today with reference to some
anticipated end or calculated conclusion of some other day, is a mere fool and
madman, whether it be in the things of God, or in the things of the world.
In this book we are made aware beforehand of what God has determined
concerning the future – what the devout may hope for, what the indifferent
and unbelieving have to fear, wherein the true safety and consolation of man is
to be found, what tribulations are to come upon the world, and what birth pangs
are yet to be passed through to reach that Golden Age of which prophets and
poets of all nations and times have spoken. ("The Apocalypse completes the
Canon of Scripture; and with reverence be it said, the sacred Canon would be
imperfect without it." – Wordsworth)
There is also a peculiar
efficacy and power in the doctrine of Christ's speedy return. Like a magnet, it
lifts the heart of the believer out of the world, and out of his low self, and
enables him to stand with Moses on the mount, and transfigures him with the
rays of blessed hope and promise which stream upon him in those sublime
heights. It is the most animating and most sanctifying subject in the Bible. It
is the soul's serenest light amid the darkness and trials of earth. And the
great end and aim of this book is to set forth this doctrine.
The
things of which it treats are things touching the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ,
and which it describes as "things that must shortly come to pass." The
impending Advent is the theme that pervades it from its commencement to its
close.
He who is awake to the great truth of the Saviour's speedy
coming, and is engaged in waiting and preparing himself accordingly, is a
better man, and in a safer condition, and really more happy, than the
half-Christian and the lukewarm. In that same proportion is he who reads, hears
and keeps the words of this prophecy blessed beyond all other people. This
book, at least its subject matter, thus becomes to him an instrument of
security and attainment to save him from surprise when his Lord comes. It bids
him escape from the tribulations that shall try the indifferent. It also gives
him a passport to admit him to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and to the
highest awards of eternity. Precious book! And happy they who study it!
The Need For Study Of Prophecy
I cannot close without remarking how all this plucks up, and
crushes to atoms, those erroneous and mischievous notions entertained by many
that there is nothing useful in prophetic studies. This says nothing of the
duty of giving heed to what God has thought it important to record, or of the
folly of seeing only peril in trying to understand what the Spirit of God has
inspired for our learning and consolation.
What man is he who, in the
face of this text, and its outspoken benediction, will venture to denounce
investigation into sacred prophecy? What if it is often dark and mysterious?
The darker and more difficult, the greater the reason for earnest examination.
Be the obscurity and mystery what it may, God says, "Blessed is he that reads
and they that hear the words, and keep those things which are written." What if
this book of Revelation is the fullest of all of dark things and perplexing
mysteries? It is then a book that, above all, needs our most solemn and
studious attention. No, it is concerning this book especially that God
pronounces this blessedness upon the devout and obedient inquirer.
Some tell us that what is yet future ought not to be examined into until after
it has come to pass. I can hardly realise that this is seriously meant. Yet I
have had it argued to me, even in Jerusalem itself. Do such persons not
perceive that they thus judge God, and Christ, and the sent angel of Christ,
and John the beloved disciple of Christ, and join issue with the God of truth
as to the correctness of His utterances?
I find also that those who so
argue are prone to insist that the day of death is the same as Christ's coming.
Do they then mean that a man is only to study the predictions of that coming
after he is dead? Out upon such doctrine as this! Away with such presumptuous
deprivation of the Church of the precious legacy left her by her ascended Lord!
I will not for a moment regard that as wrong and dangerous which the
Lord Himself has pronounced blessed. Jesus knew what He was about when He sent
this book to be shown to His servants. He understood His own words when He said
and repeated: "Blessed is he that reads and he that keeps what is in this
book."
I will also insist that it is to be studied. As Christ said to
the writer of it, so he says to all his ministers, and all his people, in all
time: "SEAL NOT THE SAYINGS OF THE PROPHECY OF THIS BOOK." It is an open book,
and meant to be ever kept open to the view of the Church from that time forward
to the end.
Woe, then, to the man who undertakes to draw away God's
people from it, or to warn them against looking into it! He takes from the
Church, which has now been these 2000 years among the dashing waves, the chart
by which above all Christ meant she should be guided, and wherein she may best
see whither she is bearing, what are her perils, and where her course of safety
lies! He undertakes to seal what God has said should not be sealed! He not only
"takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy," (whoever does so,
"God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy
city, and from the things which are written in this book" – 22:18) but
seeks to take away the book itself!
Such a course is all the more
dangerous and reprehensible now that "the time is near." Nearly 2000 years ago,
it was said of the things herein written, that they must speedily come to pass.
These records were from the first pressed upon the study of the Church by the
solemn consideration that the period of their fulfilment was rapidly
approaching. If this argument was of force then, how much more now?
Standing then as we do upon the very margin of the great Apocalypse, by all the
solemnities with which it is to be accompanied, I not only invite and
recommend, but conjure Christians, as they hope to be present at the marriage
supper of the Lamb, not to put this precious book from them, or to forgo the
faithful study of its contents. The Lord open our hearts to its teachings, and
make us partakers of the blessings it foretells!