This is tape three of Preterism Refuted, excerpts from E.B. Eliot's Horae Apocalypticae, or A Commentary on the Apocalypse, 5th edition, 1862, narrated by Larry Berger. Please note that this four-volume work is available from Stillwater's revival books, along with a treasure trove of the finest Protestant, Reformed, and Puritan literature available anywhere in the world today. Stillwater's website is www.swrb.com, And they may be contacted by email at SWRB at SWRB.com, by ground mail at 4710 37A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T6L 3T5, Canada, and by phone at 780-450-3730. Please also note that these tapes are not copyrighted and we therefore encourage you to copy and distribute them to whomever you deem would benefit. We continue our reading of Eliot's discussion of the identity of the heads of the beast of Revelation 13. The heads, then, as they, the preterists, assert, mean certain individual kings. This is not surely according to the precedent of Daniel 7, verse 6, where the third beast's four heads would seem from Daniel 8, verse 8, to have signified the monarchical successions that govern the four kingdoms into which Alexander's empire was divided at his death. But, not to stop at this, the decisive question next recurs, what the eighth head of the beast, on this hypothesis of the Preterists, Nero being the sixth, and, as they generally say, Galba, who reigned but a short time, the seventh. It is admitted, and common sense itself forces the admission, that this eighth head is the same which is said in Apocalypse 13, verses 3, 12, and 14, to have had a wound with a sword, and to have revived, and it is this revived head or beast under it. Let my readers well mark this, and he says in a footnote, for it is said in chapter 17 verse 8, the beast thou sawest, that is written by the woman, was and is not and is to rise from the abyss. And in verse 11, the beast which was and is not, he is the eighth and is of the seventh. Professor Stewart in his excursus admits the identity of the eighth head in Apocalypse 17 and revived head of the beast in Apocalypse 13. See my paper on this in the appendix to Volume 3. Reading again in the text, And it is this revived head, or beast under it, let my readers well mark this, that is the subject of all the prophecy concerning the first beast in Apocalypse 13, and all concerning the beast ridden by the woman in Apocalypse 17. What then, we ask, this eighth head of the beast? And in reply, first Icorn, And then his copyists, Heinrich, Stuart, Davidson, all four refer us to a rumor prevalent in Nero's time and believed by many that after suffering some reverse he would return again to power. A rumor which after his death took the form that he would revive again and reappear and retake the empire. Such is their explanation. The eighth head of the beast is the imaginary revived Nero. But do they not explain the beast, the revived beast? in Apocalypse 13 and his blasphemies and persecution of the saints and predicated continuance 42 months of the real original Nero and his blasphemies and his three or four years persecution of the Christians begun November 64 AD and ended with Nero's death June 9 AD 68? Such indeed is the case, and by this palpable self-contradiction, one which, however, they cannot do without, they give to their own solution its death wound. As much its death wound, I may say, as that given to the beast itself to which the solution relates. So that really, as regards the truth of the solution concerned, it is needless to go further. Nor shall I stop to expose sundry other absurdities that might easily be shown to attach to it. For example, the supposed figuration of the fall of the pagan Roman Empire in the fall of the individual Emperor Nero, albeit succeeded by pagan emperors like himself. But I cannot feel it right to conclude my critical examination of the system without a remark as to something on this head far graver and more to be reprobated than any mere expository error, however gross or obvious. The reader will have observed that as well Professor Stewart and Dr. Davidson as the German icon, explain the repeated direct statements, the beast had a wound with the sword and lived, the beast that thou sawest is not and shall be and is to ascend from the abyss and so on. to be simply allusions to a rumor current in Nero's time, but which in fact was an altogether false rumor. That is, they make St. John tell a direct lie, and tell it with all the most flagrant aggravation that fancy itself can suppose to attach to a lie, that is, under the form of a solemn prophecy received from heaven. Now of Eichhorn and others of the same German rationalistic school of theology, we must admit that they are here at least open and consistent. Their declared view of the apocalypse is as of a mere uninspired poem by an uninspired poet. So it was but a recognized poetical license in St. John to tell the falsehood. But that men professing belief in the Christian faith and in the divine inspiration as well as apostolic origin of this book should so represent the matter is surely as surprising as lamentable. It is but in fact the topstone crowning to that explaining away of the prophetic symbols and statements as mere epopee of which I spoke before, as characteristic of the system. And how does it show the danger of Christian men indulging in long and friendly familiarity with infidel writings? For not only are the scriptural expository principles and views of Christian men and neologists so essentially different that it is impossible for their new wine to be put into our old bottles without the bottles bursting, but the receiver himself is led too often heedlessly to sip of the poison, and bethinks him not that death is in the cup. And he says in a footnote, let me beg the reader to observe that I have in my examination of the German preterist scheme, here concluded, tested it simply by apocalyptic evidence and shown how little it will bear that testing. The proof is only the stronger against it if we add the additional tests of the cognate prophecy in Daniel. For the identity of the little horn of the fourth of Daniel's four beasts, with the last head of the apocalyptic beast, is a point clear and irrefutable. And it is on its destruction that Messiah's universal and everlasting kingdom is declared to be established, and that the kingdom and dominion and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven is given to the people of the saints of the Most High, even for ever and ever. A prophetic declaration this which is indeed repeated in the apocalyptic figurations, but which on their own mode of reasoning the preterists must, I think, find it more difficult to escape from than even from those to the same effect in the apocalypse. Section 2. Examination of Bossuet's Domitianic, or Chief Roman Catholic Preterist, apocalyptic scheme. It may probably at once strike the reflective reader that if the chronology of Bossuet's scheme, extending as it does from Domitian's time to the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, do in regard of the supposed Roman catastrophe abundantly better suit with historic fact than the German Neuronic or Galbaic Preterist scheme, It is, on the other hand, quite as much at disadvantage in respect of the other, or Jewish, catastrophe. For surely that catastrophe was effected in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus above twenty years before Bossuet's Domitianic date of the Apocalypse, and all that passed afterwards under Hadrian was a mere rider to the great catastrophe. But to details. And here at the outset Bossuet's vague generalizing views of the five first seals meet us as if really little more than the preliminary introduction on the scene of the chief dramatis personae, or agents, afterwards to appear in action, that is, Christ the Conqueror, war, famine, pestilence, Christian martyrs, followed in the sixth by a preliminary representation, still as general, of the impending double, or rather treble, catastrophe that would involve Christ's enemies, whether Jews, Romans, or those that would be destroyed at the last day. A view this, that even Bosway's most ardent disciples will, I am sure, admit to be one not worth detaining us even a moment. Seeing that, from its professedly generalizing character, the whole figuration might just as well be explained by Protestants with reference to the overthrow of one kind of enemy as by Romanists of another. Nor, indeed, is there anything more distinctive in his trumpets with which, however, he tells us there is to begin the particular development of events. For having settled that the Israelitish tribes mentioned in Apocalypse 7 mean the Jews literally, the 144,000 being the Christian converts out of them, and so furnish indication that they are parties concerned in what follows in the figurations, though the temple, all the while prominent in vision, is both in the fifth seal before, and in the figuration of the witnesses afterwards, construed by Boswe, not of the literal Jewish temple, but of the Christian church, He coops up these Jews, and all that is to be developed respecting them, within the first four trumpets. The hailstorm of trumpet one being Trajan's victory over them, the burning mountain of trumpet two, Adrian's victories, why the one or the other, or the one more than the other, does not appear. The falling star of trumpet three, figuring their false prophet, Bar Kokabas, son of a star, who stirred up the Jews to war. of course, however, before the war with Adrian, signified in the preceding vision, not after it, and the obscuration of the third part of Sun, Moon, and Stars in Trumpet IV, indicating not any national catastrophe or extinction, but the partial obscuration of the scriptural light before enjoyed by the Jews, through Aqaba's rabbinic school then instituted, and the publication of the Talmud. As if, forsooth, the light of scripture had shone full upon them previously, and not been long before quenched by their own unbelief, even as St. Paul tells us that the veil was upon their hearts. Did Boswe really believe in the absurdity that he has thus given us for an apocalyptic explanation? In concluding, however, at this point with the Jews, and turning to Rome pagan as the subject of the following symbolizations, he acts at any rate as a reasonable man, giving this very sufficient reason for the transition, that they who were to suffer under the plagues of the fifth and sixth trumpets are marked in Apocalypse 9.20 as idol-worshippers which certainly the Jews were not. A palpable distinctive, this which, but for stubborn fact contradicting our supposition, one might surely have thought that no interpreter of this or of any other apocalyptic school would have had the hardyhood even to attempt to set aside. Only does not the statement about the unslain remnants non-repenting of them imply that the slain part had previously been guilty of the selfsame sins of idolatry? So, passing now to the heathen Romans, with reference to their history in the times following on Bar Kokabas and the Talmud, the scorpion locusts of Trumpet V are made by our expositor to mean poisonous Judaizing heresies, which then infected the Christian Church. Was it not a piece of waggery in Boswe, exclaims Moses Stewart, so to explain it? Trumpet VI, somewhat better, the loosing of the Euphratian Persians under Sapphor, that defeated and took prisoner the Emperor Valerian, though it is to be remarked that Valerian was the aggressor in the war, not Sapor, and his defeat in Mesopotamia some way beyond the Euphrates. All which, of course, offers no more pretensions to real evidence than what went before. Indeed, its total want of anything like even the semblance of evidence makes it wearisome to notice it. Yet it is by no means unimportant with reference to the point in hand, for it shows, even to demonstration, the utter impossibility of making anything of the seals and trumpets on Bassoy's scheme. Let us then hasten to what both he and his disciples consider to constitute the real strength of his apocalyptic exposition, that is, his interpretation of the beast from the abyss, with its seven heads and ten horns, and of the woman riding on it, as symbolizations respectively of the pagan Roman emperors and pagan Rome. The notices of this beast occur successively in Apocalypse 11, 13, and 17. First, in Apocalypse 11, the beast is mentioned passingly and anticipatively, as the Beast from the Abyss, the slayer of Christ's two witnesses. Next, in Apocalypse 13, it appears figured on the scene as the dragon's successor, bearing seven heads and ten horns, one head excised with the sword but healed, another beast, two-horned, accompanying it as its associate and minister, and its name and number being further noted as 666. Once more, in Apocalypse 17, it appears with a woman, declared to be Rome, seated on it, and sundry mysteries are then expounded by the angel about its seven heads and ten horns. Now, then, for Bossuet's explanation. This beast, says he, is the Roman pagan empire at the time of the great Diocletian persecution, its seven heads being the seven emperors engaged in that persecution, or in the Licinian persecution, its speedy sequel, that is, first Diocletian, Galerius, Maximian, Constantius, then Maxentius, Maximin, and Licinius. Of which seven, five had fallen at the time of the vision. One was, that is, Maximin, another had not yet come, that is, Licinius, and the eighth, which was of the seven, was Maximian resuming the emperorship after he had abdicated. As to the name and number, it was Diocles Augustus, which in Latin gives precisely the number 666. Further, the revived beast of Apocalypse 13, revived after the fatal sword wound of the head that was, figured the Emperor Julian, and the second beast, with two lamb-like horns, the pagan platonic priests of the time that supported him, the stated time of whose reign, forty-two months, was simply a term of time borrowed from the duration of the reign of the persecutor Antiochus Epiphanes, signifying that it would, like his, have fixed limits and be short. With regard to the ten horns that gave their power to the beast, these signified the Gothic neighbouring powers which, for a while, ministered to imperial Rome by furnishing soldiers and joining alliances, but which were soon destined to tear and desolate the woman Rome, as they did in the great Gothic invasions beginning with Alaric and ending with Totilis. At the time of which last Gothic ravager, Rome's desolation answered strikingly to the picture of desolated Babylon in Apocalypse 18, As to the woman riding the beast, the very fact of her being called a harlot, not an adulteress, showed that it must mean heathen, not Christian Rome. Such is, in brief, Bosway's explanation. Now, as regards both the first beast, and the second beast, and the woman too, let it be marked how utterly it fails, and this is not in one particular only, but in multitudes. Thus as to the first beast. First, the seven heads, he says, were the seven persecutors of the Diocletianic era, But the Emperor Severus, Galerius' colleague and co-persecutor, as Bosway admits, is arbitrarily omitted by him, simply in order not to exceed the seventh. Second, the beast from the abyss, being the beast that kills the witnesses, is made in Apocalypse 11 to be the empire under Diocletian, whereas in Apocalypse 17 the beast from the abyss, and the distinctive article precludes the idea of two such beasts, is explained of a head that was to come after the head that then was, this latter being Maximin, himself posterior to Diocletian. Third, the head that was wounded with the sword being, according to Bossuet, the sixth head that was, or Maximin, its healing ought to have been in the next head in order, that is, Licinius. But this not suiting, he oversteps Licinius and explains the healed head of one much later, Julian. Fourth, the beast with the healed head being Julian, The subject of the description in Apocalypse 13, the beast's name and number, ought, of course, to be the name and number of Julian. But no solution suitable to this striking hymn, Busway makes it Diocles Augustus, the name of the beast under a head long previous. Fifth, as to this name, Diocles Augustus, it is not only in Latin numerals, which on every account are objectionable, and which no early patristic expositor ever thought of, but in point of fact is a conjunction of two such titles as never coexisted. Diocletian being never called Diocles when emperor, that is, when Augustus. Sixth, the beast that was and is not and is to go into perdition, being the eighth yet one of the seven, Bosway makes to be Maximian resuming the empire after his abdication. But the prophetic statement requires that this eighth should rise up after that which was, that is, Maximian, whereas Maximian's resumption of the empire was before Maximian. Seventh, as to the idea of Julian's hatred of and disfavor to Christianity, answering to what is said in Apocalypse 13 of the beast under his revived head making war on the saints and conquering them, it seems almost too absurd to notice. In proof, I need only refer to Julian's own tolerating decree about Christians, and the behavior of Bossuet's saints, that is, of the professing Christians of the time, at Antioch towards Julian. Eighth, the contrast of the beast's time of reigning, that is, three and a half years, with Diocletian's ten years and Julian's one and a half, might be also strongly argued from. But I pass over it cursorily, as Boswe confesses to have no explanation to offer of it, except that it is an allusion to the duration of the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. So as to the beast's heads, and still a similar incongruity strikes one about the beast's horns. Take but two points. First, these horns, having received no kingdom as yet, that is, at the time of the revelation, were to receive authority as kings at one time with the beast. So the doubtless true reading and the true rendering, as Bossuet allows, but how then applicable to the kings of the ten Gothic kingdoms, kingdoms founded long subsequent to both Diocletian and Julian, and when the Roman Empire under their headships, which is Bossuet's beast, had become a thing of the past. To solve the difficulty Busway waves the magician's rod, and without a word of warning suddenly makes the beast to mean something quite different from what it was before, that is to be Rome, or the Roman Empire, of a later headship than the eighth, or latest specified. Says he, quote, Their kingdoms will synchronize with the beast, that is, with Rome, because Rome will not all at once, that is, not immediately on the Goths' first attacks, begun about A.D. 400, have lost its existence or all its power, Yet again, secondly, these horns were with one accord to impart their power and authority to the beast, of course after themselves receiving this authority, that is, as the context of the verse demonstrates, after receiving their kingdoms. But how so? Says Basué, because of their giving their men to be soldiers of the Roman armies, and of their settling as cultivators in the empire, and making alliances with the Roman emperors. But as to time, could this be said of the reigns of Diocletian or Julian? when the gothic ten kings had received no authority as kings in the apocalyptic sense of the word? And, as to the character of the thing, could it be said of the gothic settlements in the empire, when sometimes terrible and destructive, like that of the Visigoths under Valens, that it was a giving their power with one accord to the Romans? Then turn we to the second beast, and let me here simply ask, how could Boswe's pagan philosophers, zealots that blasphemed Christ as the Galilean, answer to the symbol of a beast with a lambskin covering, the recognized scriptural emblem under the Old Testament of false prophets who yet profess to be prophets of the true God, and he refers us to Zechariah 13, 4, under the New Testament of such as would hypocritically pretend to be Christians, and he refers us to Matthew 7, verses 15 and 22. Once more, as to the woman, and here, first, instead of the word porne, harlot, fixing her to be Rome pagan, so as Busway asserts, not Christian Rome apostatized, it most fitly suits the latter, being applied in the Septuagint to apostatizing Judah, Isaiah 1, 21, and so on, in Matthew to an unfaithful wife, Matthew 7, 15, and 22. Second, what the mystery to make St. John so marvel with a mighty astonishment if the emblem meant Rome pagan? He's referring to chapter 17, verse 6. Did he not know Rome pagan to be a persecutor, know it alike by his own experience and that of all his brotherhood? Third, what of the total and eternal destruction predicated of the apocalyptic Babylon, the smoke of it going up, even, forever and forever, if there was meant merely the brief temporary desolation of Rome pagan in transitu to Rome papal? Fourth, what of its being afterwards the abode of all unclean beasts and demons? Would Bossuet observe Spatringa? Have these to be the popes and cardinals of papal Rome? Fifth, was it really Rome pagan that was desolated by the Goths, so as Boswain and his followers would have it? Surely if there be a fact clear in history it is this, that it was Rome Christianized in profession, I might almost say Rome papal, that was the subject of these desolations. As this last point is one which, if proved, utterly overthrows the whole Boswain or Roman Catholic apocalyptic preterist scheme, The Romanists have been at great pains to represent the fact otherwise. So Baswe in his chapter 3, 12 through 16, and Mr. Miley, too, just recently, in his Rome, Pagan and Papal. It is well nigh a century since the triumph of the Lebarum, says the latter writer in one of his vivid sketches with reference to the epoch of Alaric's first attack on Rome, and Rome still wears the aspect of a pagan city. One hundred and fifty-two temples, and one hundred and eighty smaller shrines are still sacred to the heathen gods and used for their public worship." On what authority Mr. M makes such an assertion I know not. Bossuet takes care not quite so far to commit himself. The facts of the case are, I believe, as follows. Constantine did not authoritatively abolish paganism, but he so showed disfavor to it that it rapidly sunk into discredit in the Empire, less, however, at Rome than elsewhere. With Julian came a partial and short-lived revival of paganism, followed on his death by a reaction in favor of Christianity. But, quote, from that period up to the fall of the empire, a hostile sect, which regarded itself as unjustly stripped of its ancient honors, invoked the vengeance of the gods on the heads of the government, exalted in the public calamities, and probably hastened them by its intrigues, close quote. So Sismondi, with his usual accuracy, as quoted by Mr. Miley, Of this sect were various members of the Roman Senate. On Theodosius becoming sole emperor, that is, emperor of the West as well as East, one of his first measures, A.D. 392, was to forbid the worship of idols on the pain of death. At Rome, however, by a certain tacit license, or connivance, heathen worship was still in a measure permitted, until in 394 himself visiting Rome and finding a reluctance to abolish what remained of pagan rites on the part of many of the senators, Theodosius withdrew the public funds by which they had been supported. On this the old pagan worship was discontinued, and the pagan temples, having in many places soon after been destroyed by the zeal of Christians, the very fact of pagan worship having been discontinued was given by Honorius, the western emperor, as a reason for not destroying the temple fabrics. Such was the state of things when Alaric first invaded Italy. And it was only in 409, after he had begun the siege of Rome and God's judgment began to be felt, that the pagan faction or sect, spoken of by Sismondi, stirred itself up. And raising the cry that the calamity came in consequence of the gods of old Rome having been neglected, prevailed on the authorities, including Pope Innocent himself, to sacrifice to them in the Capitol and other temples. But this was a comparatively solitary act. As the judgment of the Gothic desolations went on, it was only in secret that the worship of the heathen gods was kept up, and this in reference to such more trivial pagan rites as taking auguries. The dominant religion, that which was alone legalized in Rome as well as elsewhere throughout the empire, and whose worship was alone celebrated openly and with pomp, was the Christian religion with the Pope as its head. Insomuch that in 450, just at the epoch of Genseric and Attila, Pope Leo, in an address to the people of Rome on St. Peter and St. Paul's Day, thus characterized Rome and the Roman people. Quote, These are they that have advanced you to the glory of being a holy nation, a chosen people, a priestly and royal city, so as that thou shouldest be, through the seat of Peter, the head of the world, and with wider rule through religion than by mere earthly domination. Close quote. Was it then Rome pagan? or Rome incipiently papal that was the subject of Alaric's first attack and of the subsequent ravages of Genseric, Odoacer, and Totillus. I think the reader will agree with me that Pope Leo himself has pretty well settled that question, and therewith given the coup de grace to Bosway's and Miley's Roman Catholic version of the Preterist apocalyptic scheme. This concludes the excerpts from Eliot, which we trust have adequately and irrefutably displayed the scriptural and historical fallaciousness of Preterism. As mentioned in the preface, two invaluable works to assist in the study of the Book of Revelation are David Steele's Notes on the Apocalypse and Alexander MacLeod's Lectures upon the Principal Prophecies of the Revelation. Since space permits, I'll conclude with portions of each of these. First, a brief but very helpful encapsulation of necessary prerequisites to correctly interpreting Revelation, taken from Steele's notes. Second, McLeod's excellent synopsis of the entire book of Revelation, extracted from Chapter 2 of his book. First, then, David Steele. The heavens and the earth did not make themselves. The material universe furnishes to the intelligent creature a visible demonstration of the eternal power and Godhead of its author. Besides, a sense of deity is essential to humanity, and a supernatural revelation is not necessary to convince rational beings that there is a God. Man is a dependent being in common with all other creatures, and all creatures depend upon a first cause. That cause is God. Dependent as a creature, man may know something of the natural perfections of his maker. And possessing a conscience, which implies accountability to a superior, he may know, he must know, something of the moral attributes of God. In view of these positions, we may account for the fact, too often overlooked by the reader of the Bible, that the Holy Spirit directed the first of all historians to begin his narrative so abruptly. Assuming that the reader is already assured of God's being, Moses proceeds at once to account for the origination of the material universe. In simple narrative he writes, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Thus God's being and the eternity of his being are assumed as known by the first inspired penman, a fact or principle not to be disputed. True, the being of God has been questioned, but only by fools, brutish people, who, by their atheistical suggestions, have proclaimed to their fellows their brutish folly. As the Bible takes for granted that mankind have had a previous revelation in their own physical and moral constitution, in the visible heavens and earth, the same is true of the last book of the Bible, the Apocalypse. It assumes that the reader has some competent knowledge of the preceding books of the sacred scriptures. The reader is supposed to be acquainted with the patriarchal and mosaic dispensations of the covenant of grace. Moreover, the moral law, as inculcated in the Old Testament, the Levitical priesthood and ministry, as being shadows of good things to come, the doctrine according to godliness taught in the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament, are all taken for granted and supposed to be received with a divine faith by all who would profit by this last book of the sacred canon. It is further assumed in the Apocalypse that the humble inquirer into the mind of the Holy Spirit has a knowledge of ancient history, of the character and destiny of Egypt, Babylon, and so forth. And finally, it is requisite that the successful inquirer into the mind of God be acquainted with the language of symbols, and above all, that he be resolved with the inspired writer John to take a position with the mystic woman, that is, the faithful church, in the wilderness. And now MacLeod. An outline of the contents of the book of Revelation. The general arrangement of its several parts is laid down in the command of our Lord in Revelation 119, which is now the subject of discussion. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. The correct method is important in every pursuit. Science cannot exist without it. A few facts on any subject under consideration, regularly classified, furnish more real information than thousands assembled without order and without discrimination. This principle, so well attested by the several branches of natural and moral science, ought not to be neglected by the expositor of the apocalyptic visions. Here, method is necessary to prevent confusion, to ascertain events, and to understand the mysteries of this book. Several excellent commentators infer from the words of my text a threefold division of the general contents of this book. According to this arrangement, the things which thou hast seen are limited to the contents of this chapter from the twelfth to the seventeenth verse, and constitute part one of the whole book. Part two embraces the things which are, the present condition of seven churches of Asia Minor, addressed and described in the second and third chapters. Part three, by far the largest, respects the things which shall be, including the remaining part of the book from the fourth chapter to the end. This arrangement appears to me perfectly correct. I have attended to all that Lord Napier, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Woodhouse, and several other learned men have offered in behalf of a twofold division, without being convinced of its propriety. I readily acknowledge that the original text will admit their translations, write the things which thou seest, even the things which are, and the things which are about to be, But it does not require it, and the standard version is in this instance more congenial with the context. The apostle had already, under the influence of inspiration, seen things worthy of being recorded. Descriptive addresses to several churches then existing were about to be delivered to him, and both these as well as the predictions of future events are actually written in this book. The fact is the best commentary on the precept. John did as he was commanded. Part One The Vision of the Son of Man, the Candlesticks, and the Stars This General Division is very short. It is contained in the first chapter from the twelfth to the seventeenth verse. It is, however, a very interesting vision and happily introductory to each of the other General Divisions of the Apocalypse. While it displays in a remarkable manner the dignity of Christ's person and the extent of his authority over things visible and invisible, it furnishes an application of symbolical language eminently useful in illustrating the succeeding prophecies. I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged and His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength. In this striking representation, the Redeemer of the Church appears exalted above all creatures, God-man preserving and sanctifying His churches, supporting and directing the angels or ministers, and promoting the glory of the Godhead by securing our salvation. The scenery is borrowed partly from the system of the universe, as in the mention of sun and stars, and partly from the Old Testament temple service, wherein the high priest and the golden candlesticks prefigured Messiah and the several churches. The phraseology and the application of it coincide with the predictions of Daniel chapter 10. The churches and ministers are said to be seven in number because it was intended to make special communication of the apocalypse to seven particular churches, and because also seven is a symbol of completeness both among Jews and Gentiles, and in this sense repeatedly employed in the work which we are considering. Part Two, Description of the Actual Condition of the Seven Churches. This part of the Apocalypse embraces the second and third chapters. It is longer than the first, but it is short compared with the third part. The first part served not only to give a general and happy view of the Mediator, in connection with his church and her ministers universally, but also to show the particular interest which he had in each community, as exemplified in the case of seven adjacent cities in Asia Minor. This part, by describing the religious state of several well-known churches, serves to illustrate the general principle of Christ's superintendency, as well as to show in all ages the things in ecclesiastical bodies of which he approves or disapproves. An actual description, moreover, of these churches which are here addressed, served in the first instance both to procure a ready reception for this inspired book, and also to confirm the faith of the primitive Christians in a work which portrayed with so much fidelity and accuracy the state of religion in the cities to which it referred. Thus, by a declaration of general principles in the first place, and by a delineation of existing facts in the second, the way is prepared for entering upon that prospective history which, in the third place, constitutes the principal part of the Apocalypse. The seven epistles, now under consideration, are accordingly to be viewed as history. They are, of course, at present as interesting as ever. They illustrate doctrine, they inculcate obedience, now as well as in the first or second century. The character in them described and the treatment due to it from the moral governor of the universe will always be profitable subjects of investigation. In this point of view, therefore, these epistles may be said to have a prospective reference. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done. To the churches of America, of Africa, and of Europe, as well as those of Asia, they will lie applicable so far as their character corresponds with that which is given in this book. I am not, however, capable of perceiving any advantage to be derived from giving to this part of the apocalypse the title of prophecies. It is, to say the least of it, straining a point without an adequate object. There have not been wanting commentators who class these seven epistles among the predictions of future events. Such interpreters represent each of the Asiatic churches mentioned in the Revelation, not as an ecclesiastical body, then in fact existing, but as a symbol, either of a particular era of the Christian world, or of some great section of the Church of God. With the aid of a little fancy and some ingenuity, of which learned men are always fond, the descriptions of the second and third chapters are converted into so many allegories, and are applied accordingly either to seven great periods in the progress of Christianity, or to seven grand divisions of Christendom. I have heard, upon this principle, the Church of Philadelphia represented by one learned friend as the type of the Millennium, and by another, profoundly versed in allegory, as the type of the present state of religion in the United States of America." This mode of interpretation is liable to many objections. First, upon this principle it would be impossible to determine what in Scripture is history and what, parable or allegory, There is no toleration except in cases of necessity for deviating from the literal and obvious meaning. Second, there were, when the Apocalypse was written, situated in the Lesser Asia, seven Christian churches in cities of the name set down in this book, and there is no intimation in the book itself that these were not the communities intended to be addressed. Third, there is nothing in the whole contents of these epistles to forbid a literal interpretation of them as applicable to the actual churches of Asia. The text of this discourse certainly distinguishes the things that are from the things which shall be hereafter, the description of present condition from the prediction of future events. But there is no history left if we include the seven epistles among the prophecies. By comparing chapter 1, verse 19, with chapter 4, verse 1, it will readily appear that the prophetical part of the revelation does not commence until the fourth chapter. Therefore, these seven epistles are narrative. There is no key whatever for dividing time into seven distinct periods bearing any resemblance to these epistles. They cannot be made to apply to the seven periods into which the prophetic part is divided. History indeed affords such a variety of views of different ages that ingenuity can devise some periods resembling the Asian churches. But each prophecy has a key of its own, and we are not to indulge fancy in accommodating history to prediction. No such key is found in the second and third chapters. Part Three visions of futurity. This part of the apocalypse commences with the fourth chapter, as is distinctly announced by a voice from heaven, accompanied, too, with an immediate influence of the divine spirit. After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet, talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit, From these words it is obvious that the general division, the things which shall be hereafter, is not only justified, but also distinctly stated to begin with the vision, narrated chapters four and five. It is to this part that I design to turn, in a more particular manner, your attention. It contains an outline of history from the apostolical age to the end of the world. The several prophecies were revealed to the Apostle John in fourteen separate visions. These were successively vouchsafed to him with all the necessary means of understanding them, and of faithfully narrating them for our instruction. Three of these visions relate to the condition of the Church among the nations of the earth generally, and to the opposition made from various quarters against true religion. One of them respects the millennium, and one the state of future glory. Nine are employed in describing that most perplexing and distressing period, which has usually been known in the Church by the designation anti-Christian. These visions do not exactly pursue a chronological order. There is indeed a general respect to the progress of time, but, in order to show the connection of events, it was deemed necessary to attend to the chain of cause and effect until each great subject of discussion should be fully brought into view. The prophecy after this returns to the consideration of other important subjects, which may have been either contemporary with the former, or even prior to it in the order of time. This is the end of side one. Please turn the tape over to continue listening. ...which is always obvious and which gives unity to the whole of the prophetic declarations is the connection between the Christian religion and social order in the human family. This grand principle, interesting in the highest degree to every philanthropist, worthy of the most minute attention of the Christian divine and the philosophic civilian, is selected by the prophet Daniel and after his exhibition of it is more largely illustrated in its various bearings upon the actual state of the nations of the earth in the predictions of the book of Revelation. The prophet Daniel takes it up from that time in which the forms of social order, divinely prescribed for the nation of the Hebrews, were destroyed by the Chaldean conqueror, and illustrates its history during a long period, principally of trial and pain, until the time of the millennium. During the whole of this long period, consisting of about 2,500 years from the subjugation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the Prophet exhibits the Church of God in a state of depression, and the character of the kingdoms of this world hostile to the moral principles which Jehovah commands the sons of men to observe in their collective as well as in their individual capacity. The triumphs of unrighteousness over religion and morality, and over the peace, the persons, and the rights of men, especially of religious men, are depicted in the page of inspiration with a pencil as bold as it is correct. The governments of the earth are, so far as they have any proximity to the Church of the Most High, represented by him who best knows their character as both irreligious and oppressive. Of these, four great successive systems are described in the second and seventh chapters of Daniel as, in turn, obtaining universal empire and together occupying the whole time. A wild beast is the fit symbol of their character. It is the symbol of immorality, impiety and oppression. A wild beast is ungovernable and prone to destroy. These empires are disobedient to God and destructive to man. They appear in the following order. Beast is the prophetical symbol of an immoral tyrannical power. Daniel's four beasts are the great universal empires as follows. 1. The Chaldean Empire from the capture of Jerusalem to that of Babylon. 2. Medo-Persian. 3. Grecian. four, the Roman Empire under its various forms, from the time Pompey reduced Jerusalem until the close of the seventh vial. Before the revelation was given to John the Divine, the fourth beast of Daniel, or the Roman Empire, had obtained full power. The prophecies of this book, of course, respect the general principle, that is, the connection between the Christian religion and social order, chiefly as it refers to the Roman power and to the state of the Church within the bounds of that astonishing empire. This consideration is an index to the several visions. It must not be forgotten by the expositor or prophecy. By far the greatest part of the apocalypse relates to this object. The seals and the trumpets and the vials constitute the great chain which connects all the prophecies into a regular system in explanation of the principles stated above. And all these have respect to the Roman Empire. They afford an enlarged history of the fourth beast and its opposition to the Christian Church. The order which I am to follow in these lectures is now sketched out. I shall begin with the exposition of the apocalyptical predictions with a view of the sealed book, and proceed to an interpretation of the seven seals. I shall then explain the seven trumpets. I shall afterwards go on to the consideration of the seven vials. These three periods, which precede in the history of Christianity the commencement of the millennium, occupy the whole of this book from the beginning of the fourth to the twentieth chapter. I shall, however, close this lecture with a summary account of the contents of the Book of Revelation, given at one view. Part 1 is an introductory vision of the Lord Jesus Christ in His mediatorial character, head over all things to His body, the Church. Part 2 is a series of letters addressed to seven churches mentioned by name, of letters which unfold the religious condition and explain the duties of these several churches. Part 3 is prophetical. It gives a history of Christ's kingdom, explaining the maxims of religion in application to social institutions among men. It carries forward, and at greater length, illustrates the predictions of other prophets, especially Daniel, as they relate to the fourth universal empire, or Roman power. And its whole contents are subdivided into seven distinct periods. The seven distinct periods of the apocalyptic prophecy are the following, that is, 1. The period of the seals. It respects the history of the pagan Roman Empire, as it is connected with the progress of the Christian religion. 2. The period of the trumpets. It respects the history of the empire after Christianity became in name, but not in spirit and in truth, the established religion, with a view of the manner in which the events of the period affected the actual Church of God. 3. The period of the vials. It represents the decline and fall of the anti-Christian empire. 4. The period of the millennium. Then nations shall not only cease to be immoral and tyrannical, but all social institutions shall be sanctified, and all ecclesiastical and civil affairs be rendered conformable to the word of God in spirit and design. He does not mean, however, with an angelic perfection which will only be found in heaven. 5. The period of subsequent deterioration of Gog and Magog. 6. The period of the final judgment. 7. The period of celestial glory. This order of the prophecies, said the very judicious Lowman, is, I think, intelligible and natural, and, I believe, more agreeable to the important facts in history than other systems. It is certain such a plan will well answer the useful designs of prophecy in general, to prepare the Church to expect opposition and sufferings in this present world, to support good men under all their trials of faith and patience, to give encouragement to perseverance in the true religion, whatever dangers may attend it. to assure the attention of Providence and the protection of God to His own cause, that no opposition shall finally prevail against it, that the judgments of God shall punish the enemies of true religion, that their opposition to truth and righteousness shall surely end in their own destruction, when the faithful perseverance of true Christians shall be crowned with a glorious state of immortal life and happiness." Let us, my brethren, endeavor to secure for ourselves an interest in that religion which will certainly enable us to support with fidelity toward God the profession of our faith, and also after the toils of this life are ended, to pass into the place of perfect holiness and happiness. Amen. This concludes Preterism Refuted, excerpts from E.B. Eliot's Horae Apocalypticae, or a commentary on the Apocalypse, with excerpts as well from David Steele's Notes on the Apocalypse and Alexander MacLeod's Lectures upon the Principal Prophecies of the Revelation. Eliot's four-volume work and Steele's and MacLeod's one-volume works are available from Stillwater's revival books along with a treasure trove of the finest Protestant, Reformed, and Puritan literature available anywhere in the world today. Stillwater's website is www.swrv.com and they may be contacted by email at SWRB at SWRB.com, by ground mail at 4710 37A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T6L 3T5, Canada, and by phone at 780-450-3730. 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