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And now to our reading of Notes on the Apocalypse by David Steele, which we pray you find to be a great blessing and which we hope draws you nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is usual for the victors to give outward expressions to their joy. The voice of them that shout for mastery has been heard since the days of Moses, Exodus 32, 18. Accordingly, these conquerors congratulate one another on their recent victory, but their joy terminates on the proper object. The kingdom of their God and the power of His Christ constitute their theme. His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory. The devil accused Job before God. His accusations, in that instance, were prosecuted through Job's friend and his wife, Job 2.4, 5, 9, and 11. So it was in the experience of the Reformers. They were loaded with infamy by their persecutors, and while they were depressed, God himself seemed to give sentence against them. This was the wormwood and the gall in the cup of their affliction. as it was in Holy Job's experience, but in due time God brought forth their righteousness as the light and their judgment as the noonday. Their good conversation put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. The power of the Lord's Christ was made manifest through the instrumentality of His servants by producing conviction in many hearts that the cause for which they suffered was from God, and thus prevailing was such to join in their fellowship. The hearts of kings and princes of the earth were touched from on high, so that they braved the combinations of imperial and papal power, while extending the shield of their protection to the followers of the land. Frederick the Wise, and especially John his brother, electors of Saxony and Lutherstein, were notable bulwarks of defense to the sufferers against the bloody edicts of Charles V, Emperor of Germany. The good regent in Scotland and others extended effectual protection to Knox, his co-adjutors and followers in the cause of reformation. When the seven thunders uttered their voices, John was about to write. He was about to proclaim a final victory. He was too sanguine. The time was not yet. Just so in the case of his legitimate successors in the work of the Lord. confident in the power and faithfulness of Michael, their prince, confident in the righteousness of their cause, fondly hoping that at this time their master is about to restore again the kingdom to Israel, they prematurely exclaim, Now is come salvation! In reaping the firstfruits of victory, they anticipate the harvest of final and absolute conquest. Indeed, the salvation of God and the power of His Christ were experienced by great multitudes during the time of this contest. The saints experienced time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Then followed a work of grace both on the continent of Europe and in the British Isles, Christians entering into solemn covenant bonds with God and with one another, whereby the kingdom of God was rendered more visible among mankind than in the Dark Ages. The weapons with which the saints overcame the dragon were not carnal, but mighty. These, we are told, were the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. They believed, and they taught, in opposition to the popular doctrine of good works and penances, that the righteousness which the law of God requires of a sinner is provided by a surety that the blood of Christ alone cleanses believers from the guilt of sin and thus justifies them in the sight of God. No man ever used stronger language than Luther in denouncing the supposed efficacy of works, or in asserting the sovereignty of free grace in the justification of a sinner. Indeed, it was the deep impression which the doctrine of justification made upon the hearts of men, and the firm hold which faith took of it, that enabled and constrained them to forsake the Romish Church and to seek and erect a separate fellowship. This was with them the word of Christ's patience. Other doctrines of grace were, of course, connected with this of justification and the apprehension of the Reformers, but it was the central one. And thus we may learn that any doctrine of the Bible, when generally opposed, may lawfully become a point of testimony, and when openly opposed and practically denied, it may become a warrantable and imperative ground of separation. In all such cases, and history supplies multitudes of them, the declining majority are truly the schismatics and separatists. The malicious, the indolent, and credulous, however, in all ages have joined in the cry of schism as attaching to the virtuous minority. Many of the combatants fell in the conflict, resisting unto blood, striving against sin. They loved not their lives, not to death. They could give no stronger evidence of love to Christ than truth. their faithful contendings constituted their testimony. This testimony is called in the 17th verse the testimony of Jesus Christ. Does this mean that it belongs to Christ or that it treats of Him? The language may probably be taken in either sense or as embracing both. It is Christ's testimony as He is the faithful and true witness who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession where it may be understood as bearing upon Christ in his person, offices, and work. In either sense, his faithful disciples enjoy intimate communion with himself, sharing the honor of his victories. Therefore let the heavens rejoice in prospect of final victory. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them, Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto you having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. Here is a note of warning. The dragon, though ejected from the symbolic heaven, the seat of imperial and ecclesiastic power, is not yet bound with the great chain, chapter 20, verses 1 and 2. His late defeat has only incensed his rage as a bear robbed of her whelps, but the special reason assigned for his great wrath is because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. How does the devil come to know this knowledge? Is he omniscient? No. Was he joint counselor with the Most High? No. Isaiah 40, 13 and 14 and Romans 11 verse 34 He must have derived this knowledge from Revelation, and from some instances in Scripture we might infer that the devil is more skilled in theology, especially in prophecy, than many, if not most, modern interpreters. In the time of our Lord's humiliation he quoted and applied to him a prophecy in the 91st Psalm, verses 11 and 12. He also dreaded being tormented before the time, Matthew 8, 29. from which it appears that he reasons of the times and the seasons, as revealed in the Bible. But by the phrase, a short time, the devil understood, and we are to understand, not the time to transpire till the end of the world, but the time intervening between his ejectment out of heaven and the overthrow of Antichrist, when he is to be bound. Now we may learn from the devil's calculations that all those learned and famous divines especially of the Prolatic Church of England, do greatly err not knowing the Scriptures, who say that the dragon was cast out of the symbolic heaven in the time of Constantine. The space of duration from Constantine till the millennium cannot be relatively short under the New Testament dispensation. The time of the dragons being cast out of heaven, and the instruments by which this was accomplished, are to be found clearly verified in the authentic histories of the sixteenth century. to which some references have already been made as elucidating the events of the eleventh chapter. For it is to be still remembered that the former part of the eleventh chapter agrees in time with the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth chapters. At the end of the second woe, which we suppose to be in the latter part of the seventeenth century, about the year 1672, it is declared, The third woe cometh quickly. Chapter 11, verse 14. Now here it is said the devil hath but a short time, Taking both expressions as relating to the same period, it follows that we are now living, not in the time of the third woe, but in the time of the devil's activity among the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, that is, the population of Christendom, either in a tranquil or revolutionary state. The enemy makes his second attack upon the woman in a new and unexpected mode of warfare, so long as permitted He never ceases to persecute the saints. When defeated in heaven, he renews the assault upon the earth. If the edicts and bulls of crowned and mitered heads have lost their power to terrify and destroy the souls of men, he will try to affect the same object by other means. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time and times, and at half a time from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. To guard against the second attack of the dragon, the woman flees a second time to the place of safety, which had been mercifully prepared for her preservation before the war began. and she is in no less peril from her deadly enemy than before. The two wings of a great eagle have furnished occasion to many fertile minds for indulging in fanciful conjectures. To such persons nothing occurs answerable to the symbol but some emblem of imperial power or national sovereignty. And because the eagle was the visible symbol of the military banner of Rome, it is conjectured that the Eastern and Western Empires afforded protection to the Church. why the empire in both its wings was the deadly enemy of the church as we have already seen. Alas, what absurdities result from political bias the unlettered Christian will readily perceive under the emblem in the text a plain allusion to the gracious interposition of the church's Redeemer in the days of old. You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself. Exodus 19 verse 4. Thus the Lord delivered his people and brought them into a literal wilderness on their way to the promised land of liberty. And now, in a time of equal danger, he will set his hand again the second time to deliver his people. He who delivered them from so great a death as Pharaoh threatened both still deliver, in whom his saints have ground to trust, that he will still deliver them again. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 10. The great and beneficial change accomplished among the nations by the Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries, whereby the dragon was hurled from seats of ecclesiastical and civil power, did not material change the position of the two witnesses. The time had not yet come when they were to be called up into the symbolic heaven. They must continue to prophesy till the close of the appointed period of 1260 years. Until the expiration of that definite period, the true Church of Christ is not to be permanently established in any nation of the earth. The actual condition of the Church and the nations among whom she dwells is delineated in these verses during the time subsequent to the Protestant Reformation, consequently in our own time. The time, times, and half a time of the 14th verse are in obvious reference to Daniel 7.25 and Daniel 12.7. and are the same period as 42 months or 1260 days, a day for a year. During this whole time the woman is nourished in the wilderness from the face of the serpent. Safety is secured for her only in her place. Water, as a symbol or metaphor, is a frequent occurrence and varied import in scripture. Among its diversified significations, perhaps that of a destructive element is most common. Psalm 18 verse 4 Psalm 32, 6, and others. It is indeed often used to denote gospel blessings. Isaiah 55, 1, John 7, 38, Revelation 22, 17. As here used, the water as a flood represents something intended by the dragon for the destruction of the woman. If he cannot destroy her by fire, he aims to overwhelm her with water. This water comes out of the dragon's mouth, so of the unclean spirit Chapter 16, 13. Soul-destroying errors, heresies, are undoubtedly intended. If he cannot devour as a roaring lion, he will endeavor to deceive and seduce as a cunning serpent. We are therefore instructed hereby to look for damnable heresies to prevail accompanied and followed by popular commotions and licentiousness. The age in which we live is remarkably characterized by false systems and impious theories. speculative atheism caused the French Revolution and led to the erection of the United States government, which, having openly declared independence of England soon after virtually declared independence of God, France, Germany, England, and the United States have all been pervaded with infidel and atheistic sentiments, and these, whether propagated under the name of solid science or polite Literature have corrupted the public mind for generations. In the name of science, treating of the material or moral world, the agents of the dragon have been exceedingly successful. Metaphysicians and geologists have constructed systems which would exclude the Almighty from the heavens and the earth. But however active and zealous these laborers in the service of the dragon, they do not reach the popular ear, but in part. Those sons of Belial who devise false systems of religion under the name of Christianity, have been still more pernicious to the nations and dangerous to the Church. If the Church of Rome cannot prevail with kings as before to execute her cruel sentences of death upon heretics, she is not less active in disseminating her idolatrous and superstitious dogmas among the nations. By free masonry, odd fellowship, temperance associations, and a countless number of affiliated societies, With the offshoots of potpourri and infidelity, the dragon still assails the woman. Reason, toleration, humanity, charity, and liberality are terms which have been selected and abused by the servants of the devil to deceive the hearts of the simple. These are alike the watchwords of the spiritual seducer and the political agitator. What dogma or heresy so absurd, what conduct so immoral, has not defined patronage in the journals of the day? or not to find tolerance or protection under the fostering wing of church or state. What is impiously called free love, as well as avowed infidelity and polygamy, are patronized by constituted authorities in Christendom. When taking a survey of the heirs and systems of error hostile to the honor of Messiah and the free grace of His gospel, how few can be found in the different nations of the earth who overcame by the blood of the Lamb. The religions established by the nations of the world are all more or less tainted with errors and disfigured by the ceremonies of the Church of Rome. Surely we have before our eyes a constant fulfillment of the prophecy under consideration. To all outward appearances the woman is in the wilderness. She is, in fact, so obscure that some of her sons begin to question her visibility. They are ready to cry in despondency. The witnesses are slain. They are mistaken. But this is their infirmity. The twelve hundred and sixty years are not yet expired, nor the testimony finished. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." Isaiah 59, 19. The mystic woman is yet in the wilderness, and there she is, nourished with the hidden manna, a time, times, and a half a time, forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days, that is, years. Therefore, as formally noticed, all these expressions mean the same period of time, the period during which the witnesses prophesied on the one side and the Gentiles tread the outer court on the other. The profanation of the Holy City, the Church nominal, and the testimony of the witnesses against that conduct is the same contest which in this chapter is represented under other symbols. The waters of the symbolic flood have spread over all the nations of Christendom corrupting the very fountains of natural and moral science, literature, politics, and religion, so that hardly any principle is accepted by the human mind as settled, but all is thrown into debate. Man's intellect, craving substantial nourishment and thirsting for refreshment which nothing but the water of life can supply, vibrates between ritualism and skepticism in our day. The flood from the dragon's mouth, consisting of truth and error, A combination of Christianity, refined idolatry, and speculative atheism fails to satisfy the necessary cravings of the immortal soul. There be many that say, Who will show us any good? In this state of the popular mind, there is a general sentiment which discounts penalties inflicted from your opinion. The cry of toleration, freedom of speech, and of the press resounds in the public ear among most communities since the dragon was cast down from the mystic heaven. This popular sentiment is not an expression of the law of charity, actuating hearts influenced by divine grace, but rather originates from indifference alike to the claims of Messiah and the destinies of mankind. Thus the earth helps the woman. Indeed, the nations of Christendom, contrary to their former policy, are now much more tolerant of ecclesiastical and of political heresies. With few exceptions, the policy of the nations at the present time is to discriminate not among churches but among religions. The popular voice is obviously in favor of dissevering that alliance between church and state from which mankind has suffered in past generations. While every earthly potentate, usurping the place and prerogative of the mediator, assumed to dictate the faith and worship of his subjects, all dissenters and recusants must necessarily be subjected to penalties. Such was the policy of the dragon for centuries, while in the heavens of ecclesiastical and civil power, the nominal church established by the state defined heresy and the heresy found by the church became rebellion against the civil authority. Of course, the saints were then executed as traitors. Even a superficial view of the signs of the times will result in the conviction that a great change has taken place in the policy of nations and churches. The dragon has now prevailed with most politicians and statesmen, as well as with most professing Christians, to demand a total separation of church and state. which by demand they do not mean a divorce of the unscriptural and anti-Christian alliance only or chiefly, but a simple and absolute rejection of religion, and especially the Christian religion, from any connection with or influence upon civil affairs. This is undeniably the avowed aim and declared desire of the great body of the population of Christendom at the present time, 1870. And what is this but an open denial of the authority of the mediator, as he is prince of the kings of the earth? Thus has the dragon, since his ejection from heaven, become a terrible woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, and thus has the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood, so that the woman remains comparatively safe from the face of the serpent in the very obscurity of her position. Some of her sons, from time to time venturing abroad from their secluded place in the wilderness, becoming weary of sackcloth and aspiring to worldly distinction, had been borne along by the waters of the flood and drowned in the general deluge. Against the force of this strong current of popular errors, nothing will avail the seed of the woman but the living waters which Jesus imparted to the woman of Samaria. To him who partakes of this water, those of the dragon will be distasteful. for it shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4.14 Since the middle of the seventeenth century, when, by the Reformation in Europe and the British Isles, the dragon was cast down from the symbolic heaven, he has been assailing in great wrath all ranks and degrees of men. Not as before, with fire and sword, with scaffolds, gibbets thumbscrews, torturing and destroying their mortal bodies, that he might reach their immortal souls, but by bringing them together in voluntary associations on principles of the covenant of works, subversive of the covenant of grace, and consequently aiming at the drowning of the mystic woman. This the enemy of all righteousness has been attempting, and with too much success, by public and professed ecclesiastical and Christian associations. such as Jesuits, Sassanians, and other self-styled Unitarians, Latter-day Saints, Mormons, or by combinations in secret and sworn confederacies such as Odd Fellows, Freemasons, Sons and Daughters of Temperance, and with other affiliated fellowships innumerable. The special subtlety of the Serpent consists in blending these two kinds of communions so that, under the name of reform, moral and spiritual, those who fear God may be unconsciously drawn into the snare. And alas, how many simple ones have been thus carried away by the waters of the flood! And many strong men have been thus cast down from their excellency. We are not to be surprised if we find the witnesses few in our time. The seed of the woman diminished when the dragon makes his final attack. Verse 17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed. which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. In this verse we have the last effort of the enemy to destroy the woman's offspring. It is the third attempt and, as we suppose, is yet future. We cannot therefore, of course, be so exact or certain as to the nature of this contest. Some things, however, are plain enough. The dragon, disappointed in his efforts hitherto against the woman so far from ceasing the warfare, is only thereby the more exasperated. The dragon was wroth with the woman. Malus overcomes reason. He knows that he cannot finally prevail, that no weapon formed against her shall prosper. Yet he continues to vent his rage. The mode of attack is to be different from what it was in the second struggle. He is said to make war. to resort to open violence to employ the agency of the civil power, the beast of the bottomless pit. For this third and last war waged by the dragon agrees in time with the slaying of the witnesses. This third onslaught agrees also with the third woe trumpet, the vintage, and the last vial, and immediately precedes the introduction of the millennium. The remnants of the woman's seed are so called with reference to those of her offspring who had suffered death under pagan and papal Rome, chapter 6, verse 9. Perhaps also we may suppose the number to be comparatively few at the time of the last war with the dragon, as during the whole period of the 1260 years it was the aim of the dragon, through his instruments, to wear out the saints of the most high. Daniel 7.25. The character which the Holy Spirit gives of these sufferers proves them to be the woman's they keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. This is the special ground of the devil's hostility towards them. A more comprehensive and definite description of the true believers is not to be found in the whole Bible. In matters of religion, they adhere strictly to the commandments of God. They will not introduce, nor permit to be introduced, any corruptions into the doctrines of grace or into the matter of God's worship. But the temple, altar, and worshippers must stand the measurement of God's word in their fellowship. No human traditions or innovations are to be tolerated, but besides their conscientious care to have all the laws of the house of God duly observed, these remaining witnesses sustain and propagate the testimony of their predecessors with such additional facts as they may have collected in their own time for the personal glory the offices and work of Jesus Christ. This testimony will necessarily bring them into collision with the children of those who killed their fathers in the same quarrel. Like their fathers, they have the sentence of death in themselves, that they should not trust in themselves, but in God, which raised the dead, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection." 2 Corinthians 1 verse 9 and Hebrews 11 verse 35. For as already hinted, this remnant is to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, as others did, and in death to gain the final victory over death by vital union to their living Lord, being made conformable to his death." Hebrews 2, 14 and 15. Chapter 13, verses 1 to 10. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, 10 And upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his head the name of blasphemy. 11 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. 12 And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. 13 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. 14 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war with him. And they were given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. This chapter may be considered as an explication or commentary upon the seventh chapter of Daniel's prophecy and a farther elucidation of what is revealed under different symbols in the two preceding chapters, and no one can have an intelligent understanding of its contents without a competent knowledge of the symbols employed in those chapters. Here the Holy Spirit is given a most graphic, intelligible, and comprehensive exhibition of the complex power which the dragon employs to persecute and slay the witnessing servants of Christ. Hitherto the devil had conducted the war against the saints through the agency of the beast of the pit, chapter 11 verse 7, and those allies called his angels, chapter 7, 7. But here has been a veil of obscurity hanging over these agencies. Who the beast and other allies of the dragon are, it is the very design of this chapter to disclose with greater precision and clearness than heretofore. In a word, we have here the full portrait of the Great Antichrist. The distinct features and component parts of this complex and diabolical system of hostility to the Lord and His Anointed are presented in detail for our inspection. And it is a fact that by a competent knowledge of this hostile combination, the suffering saints of God have been hitherto enabled to direct their testimony with intelligence and efficacy against their appropriate objects. And although the developments of providence in past centuries, and those transpiring in our own generation, are calculated to shed light upon this and collateral prophecies, yet the gross conceptions of the illiterate in the contemplation of prophetic symbols on the one hand, and the reckless disregard of Scripture rules and usage by the learned on the other, have greatly contributed to the present lamentable ignorance and culpable indifference of most Christians, for people cannot feel an interest in that of which they are ignorant, but to be willingly ignorant of that which may and ought to be known is one of the characteristic sins of a generation of impenitent and profane scoffers." 2 Peter 3, verse 3 and 5. On the other hand, all who humbly and earnestly desire to know the mind of God for their direction in faith and holiness shall assuredly obtain the necessary instruction. Daniel 8.15, John 16.13, and 1 Corinthians 14.38. In these first ten verses are contained the characteristics of that beast whose origin is given. Chapter 11 verse 7, There we had no particular description of this personage, only he was the agent by whom the witnesses were opposed in open warfare, and by whom they were finally killed. Now we have a more full account of his origin, character, achievements, and duration. This personage is denominated a beast. So are designated other characters who are very different from this, chapter 4, verse 6. In that place, we intimated that the authorized version is imperfect, and that either living creatures or simply animals, which latter we prefer, is that which the reader is to understand from the original word. Not only are the four animals different in origin, nature, and agency from the beasts, but in all these respects they are morally opposite. This is a ravenous beast, a beast of prey. Elsewhere the word is translated a wild beast, a venomous beast, a viper. Acts 10.12 and 28 verse 4. This beast is the same which appeared in vision to the prophet Daniel. Chapter 7 verse 3. of the four great beasts which that prophet saw, this is the last. All the preceding are described by their resemblance to some known animals, but each is ferocious, a lion, bear, leonard, leopard. The fourth is a nondescript, there is no species in the animal kingdom that can represent it, only it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, verse 7. These four beasts represent four kings, verse 17, that is kingdoms. verse 23, or dynasties. Now all interpreters agree that these four dynasties are the same as those symbolized in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, chapter 2, verse 31 to 43. The different parts of the image answer to the four beasts, and these again are the symbols of the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires. Thus far, all sober expositors are agreed. Also, there is a like agreement that John's first beast identifies with Daniel's fourth, the Roman Empire. This is obvious from the general description by both prophets, having seven heads and ten horns. Daniel 7 verse 7 and Revelation 13 verse 1. The origin of this beast is threefold. Out of the sea, verse 1. Out of the bottomless pit, chapter 11 verse 7. 17.8 And out of the earth, Daniel 7.17, out of the sea of the commotions arising from the incursions of the northern barbarians by whom the Roman Empire was dismembered, the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise, Daniel 7.24. This is the result of revolution, the sea. The Roman Empire, especially as nominally Christian, is thus characterized as being earthly, sensual, devilish, a suitable agent of the dragon. The fact that the ten horns of the beast, now wearing crowns, proves that the time to which the prophecy refers is that which followed the division of the empire into ten kingdoms. The seven heads of the beast have a double double, significant, seven different forms of government, and seven mountains afterwards to be morally fully explained in chapter 17 verses 9 and 10. The name of blasphemy may indicate eternal, city, mistress of the world. Of this characteristic of the beast, other examples will be discovered hereafter. Daniel was solicitous to know the truth, interpretation of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, chapter 7 verse 19. Although diverse from all the others in geographical extent and destructive power, this fourth beast combined in one all the ravenous propensities of the three predecessors, but in reverse order. The leopard, bear, and lion of Daniel, by which Grecian, Persian, and Chaldean dynasties were symbolized, are all comprised in John's beast of the sea, the anti-Christian Roman Empire. And since this beast of the sea embodies all the voracious properties of the three persecuting powers which went before it, this may be a suitable place briefly to review the sufferings inflicted by them upon the saints, that we may know what the witnesses were taught to expect at the hands of this monstrous enemy. Israel is a scattered sheep, the lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria hath devoured him, and the last, this Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, hath broken his bones. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall inhabitant of Zion say. And my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldees shall Jerusalem say. Jeremiah 50 verse 17 and 51 verse 35. Haman the son of Hamadathah the Agagite The Jew's enemy thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone. If it please the king, let it be written that they, the whole people, may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to bring it into the king's treasuries. Behold also the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon. Esther 3 verse 1 and 9 and 7 verse 9, such were the crimes and such the punishments of the enemies of God's people in Babylon and Persia, as already matter of inspired history. And had we equally full and authentic records of the punishments as we had of the cruelties of Antiochus and other successors of Alexander the Great, the king of Greece, we would see, as in other cases, the just reward of the wicked. Of all these idolatrous, tyrannical and persecuting powers, which the divine spirit represented by beast of prey, it was foretold that they were to be removed in succession and with violence. This fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, was to devour and break in pieces, and stamp the residue with the feet of it." Daniel 7.7 Moreover, while it is predicted of them that they had their dominion taken away, it is also added, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. That is, though their distinct and successive dominations were severally swept from the earth, yet their lives, the diabolical principles by which they had been actuated, survived, and these passed by a kind of transmigration into the body of the fourth beast. This transition of animating principles or imperial policy of inveterate hostility to the kingdom of God, we think, is plainly indicated by the three features of this beast of the sea, the leopard, bear, and lion. If these three slew their thousands, this monster had slain his ten thousands of the saints, and the remnants of the woman's seed are yet to be slain as they were." Chapter 11, 11. A dragon gave him his power, physical force, his seat, or throne, his right to reign, and great authority, dominion, by the voice of the people. Thus it is obvious that the seven-headed ten-horned beast is the first and the oldest among the combined enemies of the Christian Church, all of whose origin is from the dragon, the abyss, or bottomless pit. The writers of the Church of Rome, while forced to acknowledge that this beast is emblematical of the Roman Empire, still insist that pagan Rome is intended. It is sufficient in opposition to this false interpretation to observe that the beast appears to John with crowns not upon his head but upon his horns, denoting the actual division of the empire into ten kingdoms, an event which did not transpire till after the empire had become nominally Christian under the reign of Constantine the Great. The reign of this empire and his successors by their largesse foster the luxurious propensities of the Christian ministry and so contributed to prepare the way for the rise of the next enemy in this anti-christian confederacy against the witnesses. The head wounded unto death is the sixth. John says expressly elsewhere, five are fallen and one is, and the other is not yet come. Chapter 17, verse 10. The five fallen were kings, consuls, dictators, dissembers, and military tribunes. All these forms of civil government had passed before the time of the apostle, the one existing in his time was the sixth head, the emperors, by one of whom the apostle was now subjected to banishment in the desert isle of Patmos. This wound is supposed by some to be the change from paganism to Christianity in the empire. No, this view is in many ways erroneous, but it is enough to remark that the Roman Empire, according to both prophets Daniel and John, is to continue bestial until all changes during the whole period of 1260 years. The deadly wound was inflicted by the northern invaders who overturned the empire and for a time extinguished the very name of emperor in the very person of Augustus. After the division of the western member of the empire had been subdivided among the victorious leaders of the invaders from the north, And the people of that section suppressed the beast's flame. The throne of Constantinople continued to be occupied by the representative of the empire. In the popular apprehension, the imperial head of the beast seemed to be utterly cut off by the sword of Odoacer, wounded by a sword. But the several kingdoms into which the empire was divided in process of time became united in the bonds of an apostate faith. The imperial name and dignity were revived in the person of the Emperor of Germany, Charlemagne, in 800, and by the wars among the horns of the beast, the title of Emperor has been claimed alternatively by Germany, Austria, and France down to our time. These dissensions and rivalries among the sovereigns of Europe, the mystic horns of the beast, were foreshadowed in the Babylonian monarch's dream, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. They shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." Daniel 2, 42 and 43. And doubtless these internal commotions among the common enemies of the saints of God have tended, in divine mercy, to divert their attention occasionally from the witnesses. While they have been made the instruments of mutual punishment, the Lord's people have been hid in the days of this fierce anger. Zephaniah 2, 3. At what time the sixth head of the beast disappeared and the seventh became developed is not clearly marked in the Apocalypse, and it is of comparatively little importance since the latter is to continue a short space. Chapter 17, verse 10 The central fact is the continuance of the beast a definite time under all the heads, twelve hundred and sixty years. Under the form of government through which the empire passed, it continued bestial and was the object of popular admiration. All the world wondered after the beast. The populace made court to, fawned upon, and followed in the train, or formed the retinue of the beast. We are not to limit the phrase all the world, for not all the inhabitants are to be understood, but such only as professed allegiance to the existing imperial dominion And among those within the beast's territorial jurisdiction, the witnesses still stood to their protest against his impious claims. But from admiration and loyalty, the servile multitude breaks forth into adoration, addressing the dragon and the beast in such language as is proper to God only. The shouts of the rabble on Herod's birthday may illustrate the conduct of those votaries of the beast and dragon. Acts 12.22, the poor ignorant and deluded subject, in rendering homage to the beast, did homage to the devil, from whom the power was derived. Such is the degradation to which man is reduced by blind obedience to despotic power, whether civil or ecclesiastical. He glories in the chains which bind him, and this is the actual involuntary condition of the great majority of the population of Christendom at the present hour. There has been, indeed, within the current century an effort by the masses of the people to assert their natural and civil rights to regain the exercise of the elective franchise, but in selecting candidates to bear rule over them they generally prefer such as are, like the majority themselves, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. Hence, while men are exalted, the wicked bear rule and the people mourn, some 12, 8, and Proverbs 29, 2. The blasphemies uttered by this beast are all those royal prerogatives claimed by the several crowned horns or civil sovereigns who have established idolatry and superstition within their respective dominions. The blasphemous headship over the Church of Christ as viewed and designated by His persecuted disciples in the British Empire may tend to illustrate this part of the beast's history. King Henry VIII of England Upon renouncing the civil and ecclesiastical headship of the Pope, proceeded to usurp an ecclesiastical headship within his own dominions, and all his royal successors till the present day have asserted a similar dominion over the faith of the Lord's people. As an inherent right of the Crown, the Sovereign of Britain, male or female, is declared to be the supreme judge in all causes as well ecclesiastical as civil. The rest of the horns are no less blasphemous than their haughty pretensions. History attests that the martyrs of Jesus denounced these encroachments on the prerogatives of Christ and the intrinsic power of his Church as Erastian supremacies, blasphemous supremacies. Most expositors tell us that the blasphemies are chargeable to the Pope or to the Roman Church, but this interpretation confounds this beast of the sea with the apostate Church of Rome. And indeed, this confounding of symbols and consequent mistaking of objects in actual history are the primary errors of expositors in nearly all their attempts at expounding the apocalypse. This first beast of John and fourth of Daniel, however, is wholly secular or civil, and clearly distinguished by both inspired prophets from the other agents of the dragon, as we shall in the subsequent part of this chapter. as we shall find in the subsequent part of this chapter. This beast blasphemes the name of God by compelling men to worship idols and images, enacting penal statutes, and issuing bloody edicts to force their consciences. He blasphemes his tabernacle when stigmatizing the assemblies of God's worshiping people as traitorous conspiracies, rendezvous of rebellion, and them that dwell in heaven he blasphemes by calling them incendiaries, fanatics, enthusiasts, rebels, and traitors. For all these terms of reproach are well authenticated in history as heaped upon the faithful and heroic servants of Christ. Those who suppose that the phrase, them that dwell in heaven, means saints departed and angels as worshipped by papists in obedience to the Roman Church make two mistakes. One, that ecclesiastical power is here intended, whereas we have already shown that the power is civil. The other, that the word heaven is to be taken in a literal sense, contrary to the symbolic structure of the whole context. All history, so far as authentic, teaches that the civil powers throughout Christendom attempt to coerce by penal inflictions the consciences of all who refuse obedience to their commands, no less than the Church of Rome. Even constitutional guarantees of liberty of conscience have never secured the witnesses from the savage rage of the beast or any of his infuriated horns. Witness the history of the bloody house of the Stuarts of Britain. In vain did the victims of papal and paralytic cruelty plead in their just defense in the seventeenth century the constitution and laws of their native land. Those who have done violence to the law of God will always disregard human enactments which stand in the way of their ambitious schemes. Their own laws will be treated as ropes of sand, as Samson's was, and the blood of saints as water. Such is persecution. The seventh verse, expressing the beast's victory over the saints and the extent of his power, is explanatory of chapter 11, verse 7 and 9. And the time of his continuance, verse 5, is the same as the treading underfoot of the city, chapter 11, verse 2. so that we are assured of the agreement in time between the events here and those of the first part of the eleventh chapter. Also, the parties here presented are the same as in the two preceding chapters, only they are exhibited in different aspects by appropriate symbols. The worshippers of the beast include all under his dominion except those whose names were written in the Book of Life. This book is different both from the sealed book, chapter 5, and also from the open book, chapter 10. It is the register, as it were, of the names of all whom the Father gave to the Son to be by Him brought to glory. John 17, verse 2, and Hebrews 2, verse 10. See also Revelation 20, verse 12 and 15. During the whole reign of the beast, these are preserved, having been sealed unto the day of redemption. In the seventh chapter we had the angels employed in holding the four winds of the earth till these servants of God were sealed in their foreheads before the first alarm should be given by the trumpets. The book of life contained their names from the foundation before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1.4 They were in time sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise so that it was impossible to deceive them either by lying wonders or the servants' sophistry. Ephesians 1.13 Matthew 24, 24. The Lamb may be said to be slain from the foundation of the world in the purpose of God, 2 Timothy 1, 9, and sacrificed, Genesis 4, 4, in the ceremonial law and prophecy, Matthew 11, 13, and in the efficacy of the satisfaction rendered to divine justice, for which the Father gave him credit from all, excuse me, gave him credit from the fallen man, Romans 3, 25. So many erroneous views have been taken and false interpretations given of this chapter in particular, as of the Apocalypse in general, that the Divine Spirit calls special attention here to the rise, reign, and ruin of the Beast of the Sea. The prophetic description of this beast in a special manner is of such importance to instruct and thereby sustain and comfort the suffering disciples of Christ that he causes his servant John to pause, as it were, and allow the reader to reflect. Indeed, wherever a note of attention is best given, we may be sure that something hid from the wise and prudent is intended. Accordingly, it were endless to follow the vagaries of even learned men dealing out their private interpretations of this chapter. Yet the understanding of its general outlines was at the bottom of the Reformation by Luther, his colleagues, and successors. Elsewhere, however, we may take occasion to notice how vague and inadequate and bold were some of their conceptions, all going to show the seasonableness of the solemn admonition, If any man have an ear, let him hear. The beast is to be treated as he dealt with the victims of his cruelty. He is justly doomed to captivity and death. The beast was taken and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. chapter 19 verse 20. Topath is ordained of old. It was used by the prophets as a figure of hell. Isaiah 30 verse 33. To this place, whence there is no redemption, this monstrous beast was to be consigned, as predicted by the prophet Daniel. Chapter 7 verse 11. The beast was slain and his body destroyed and given unto the burning flame. In the protracted contest of 1260 years with this imperial power, the patience and the faith of the saints was exemplified. Faith and patience would be more severely tried in this case than in any other, as the period of persecution was to be made much longer, continuance than any that had preceded since the beginning of the world." Hebrews 6 verse 12. This ends tape number 7 of Notes on the Apocalypse by David Steele. Please go to the next tape in the series and continue listening. Thank you. This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwaters Revival Books. Many free resources, as well as SWRB's complete mail-order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, CDs, and much more at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com. by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L 3T5. If you do not have a web connection, please request a free printed catalog. 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