revelation commentary bruce

Preface

A revered friend, now in heaven, whose counsel and encouragement have greatly lightened my labours, was of opinion with me that the Eevelation,' which is peculiarly a book for the New. Church, was less studied by New Church people than its great importance demands. We thought that if the substance of the Apocalypse Revealed and the Apocalypse Explained were cast in a somewhat different mould, and presented in an accommodated form, a book might be produced that would serve as an introduction to the perusal and study of these great works. The present volume is the result of an attempt to effect this object. It has been my aim to draw out the practical lessons of the various incidents of this mysterious book more directly than it was consistent with Swedenborg’s purpose to do. I have also dwelt at greater length on the bright than on the dark side of the magnificent Vision of the Apocalyptic Seer, as unfolded by the Seer of the New Jerusalem, without, however, designedly leaving either the meaning obscure or the lessons uncertain of those parts which have been more briefly treated. The explanation of the address to the seven churches I owe to the late Eev. Samuel Noble, whose discourses on that subject have been placed at my disposal by the congregation of which he was the distinguished minister. I have only, in conclusion, to express my earnest desire that the work may in some measure serve the purpose which I have had in view in preparing it.

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Introduction

No part of the Sacred Scripture has been the subject of such deep and anxious study as the Book of Revelation, and none has received so many and such various interpretations. This may be accounted for by the nature of the book itself. At once prophetic and enigmatic, it gives the greatest stimulus to human curiosity, and affords the widest scope for human ingenuity. The variety and uncertainty of the expositions it has received arise from one cause : John has been to Christians what Moses was to the J ews, a veiled prophet. “ Moses put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished : but their minds were blinded : for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament ; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart ” (2 Cor. iii. 13-15). That which was abolished, to the end of which the children of Israel could not steadfastly look, was the Israelitish dispensation. That which is abolished, to the end of which Christians cannot look, is the Christian dispensation. By the Christian dispensation we do not of course mean Christianity. This will never end, but will continue to increase in strength and glory from generation to generation ; but the first dispensation of the church passes away, to be succeeded by another and a bettor. As the Israelitish dispensation was abolished by the First Coming of Christ, the Christian dispensation is abolished by His Second Coming. Here is the grand mistake of Christians and of Christian commentators : they have been looking for the Coming of the Lord as the signal for the destruction of the world. The end of the age (alwv) which our Lord’s disciples inquired after, and which He encouraged them to expect, has been converted by their successors into the end of the world. True, the Lord’s description of the end of the age or dispensation, and of His Second Coming, might lead the mere literalist to understand Him to predict the end of the material world. The sun is to be darkened, the moon is not to give her light, and the stars are to fall from heaven; and heaven and eartli themselves are to pass away. But how is

VI

INTRODUCTION.

it that men who are supposed to be acquainted with the figurative language of Scripture, and who know that similar predictions had been previously fulfilled, have understood and continue to understand all this literally ? It is because their minds were blinded ; for until this day there remaineth the veil untaken away in the reading of the New Testament. This veil is done away in Christ — ; at His Second Coming. The event has given the interpretation. Its previous concealmeitf was the Lord's permission. NT o prophecy can be clearly understood before the time of its fulfilment. No church can look steadfastly to its own end. This is no cause of reproach. It is as necessary as it is natural. The Lord works out His own wise and beneficent ends in ways that are known only to Himself ; and which we would only interfere with by knowing. The true interpretation of the book is now known, because the Second Coming of the Lord has already taken place. The event has explained the prediction, and thus revealed the mystery. The Second Coming of the Lord, as will be shown in the explanation of the book, is not a personal appearance in the clouds of our atmosphere, but a spiritual event, effected by the revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word, in which the Lord has made Himself visible to the minds of men, in the power and great glory of His own Divine Humanity. He comes to establish anew His kingdom upon earth. The first Christian dispensation is meant by the earth and the heaven that fled away from the face of Him that sat upon the throne ; and the second Christian dispensation is meant by the new heaven and the new earth that John afterwards beheld. The New Jerusalem, which he saw coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, is the appropriate Scripture emblem of the New Church, as a dispensation of truth and love.

Commentators having been in error respecting the leading events of the prophecy; they could not but be mistaken regarding the nature of its subordinate parts. The Revelation has been generally supposed to give a continuous history of the church from its beginning. This, however, is a mistake. It describes the state of the church at the time of its end. But it described the state of the church, as it appeared, not in the natural, but in the spiritual world. That part of the spiritual world in which the manifestations of its state took place is the middle region, or world of spirits, into which all souls enter, and where they remain, some for a shorter, some for a longer period, before they pass into heaven or hell. There, also, all judgment takes place. There, and not in the natural world, was set a great white throne ; and there

INTRODUCTION.

Vll the dead, small and great, stood before Him who sat upon it, and were judged every one according to his works. A general judgment takes place at the end of every general dispensation. Indeed, the general judgment brings the dispensation to an end. And when the dispensation is abolished, a new dispensation commences. All that is related in the Revelation previous to the judgment is .descriptive of the preparation for it. And all that is related after the judgment is descriptive of tlio new order of things which succeeds, when the former things have passed away. This being the case, it is evident that no explanation of the vision of St. John could have been given, except by one who was not only mentally enlightened to understand the Divine and spiritual subjects of which the Revelation treats, but whose spiritual sight was opened to behold the things which exist in the other life. Only by one thus qualified to reveal the secrets contained in the vision of St. John could the Apocalypse be laid open, as it now is in the writings of the Lord’s servant, Emanuel Swedenborg.

THE REVELATION.

Chapter I

1. This book is announced as The Revelation of Jesus Christ . The word here translated Revelation occurs, in its substantive and verbal form, in numerous instances in the New Testament, ^nd is variously rendered : Revelation (Rom. ii. 5) ; manifestation (viii. 9) ; appearing (1 Peter i. 7) ; coming (1 Cor. i. 7) ; enlightening (Luke ii. .32). It literally means, to disclose wliat is hidden, to discover what is concealed. “ There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed ” (Luke xii. 2). It is therefore appropriately employed to express the manifestation of iniquity in the last days, and the revelation or appearing of the Lord at His Second Coming. “ The day of Christ shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then 6liall that Wicked be revealed , whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of Ilis mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thess. ii. 3, 7, 8). “The Lord Jesus shall bo revealed from lioavcn, with His mighty angels, in flaming lire, taking vengeance on them that know not God” (i. 7, 8). Rut He who comes as a consuming fire to the wicked, comes as a refining fire to the righteous. To them it is said, “ that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishetk, though it be tried with fire, might bo found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter i. 7, 13). These passages show both the meaning and application of the word. The Revelation discloses or reveals the state of the church, or of religion, as it would be in the last days, when dark*

A

THE REVELATION.

[Chap. I.

ened by error and corrupted by evil, and the coming of the Lord to restore it. The Revelation, it is true, requires itself to be revealed. But all prophecy needs interpretation. Future events are known to God only. He foretells them, to keep alive faith in His promises and dependence on His providence ; but not until the timo of their fulfilment is the true import of His prophecies revealed. And lie who is the Revelator must also be the Interpreter. The Lord gives His revelations through His servants ; and as the revelation comes through a chosen medium, so does the interpretation. “God is His own interpreter.”

The Revelation of Jesus Christ first of all reveals Himself. “ Light is that which doth make manifest. ” But that which manifests all else manifests itself. This book completes and perfects the revealed Word of God, and it is eminently the Revelation of Jesus Christ, as the God and Saviour of men, the Builder and Maker of the city which hath twelve foundations — the last and best Dispensation of the Church on earth, the holy city New Jerusalem. The Gospel reveals Jesus chiefly as He appeared among men in llis stato of humiliation ; the Ajjocalypse reveals Him as He appears among angels, and as by tho eye of faith He is to be seen by men, in His state of exaltation. Tho Gospel therefore describes tho Lord as manifested in the flesh, and to tho church of His First Advent ; the Apocalypse describes Him as manifested in the spirit, and to the church of His Second Advent.

This book is further announced as the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto Him. Though specified in this one instance, this mode of revelation is not peculiar to the Apocalypse, but is common to all the books which constitute The Word. All are the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and all were given unto Him by God. This does not imply that God and Jesus are two Persons. We cannot conceive of one Divine Person giving a revelation to anothor Divine Person in all respects equal with Himself. But when wo understand God and Jesus to be the names of two distinct essentials of the Deity, the statement is intelligible and clear, and the truth it expresses is seen to be liighly important and beautifully instructive. Jesus, as the Eternal Word or Wisdom of God, is the immediate Author of Revelation, as He is of Creation and Redemption. But besides the Divine Wisdom, there is another essential of the Deity, in which Revelation as well as Creation has its origin. That other essential is Divine Love. In all that the Almighty does His Love is the moving cause and His Wisdom is the efficient cause. The Love of God is that from which all things exist ; the Wisdom of God is that by which all things exist. “ To us there

THE REVELATION.

is but one God, the Father, /rom whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things” (1 Cor. viii. 6). “He is before all things, and by Him all things consist ” (Col. i. 17). This law of Divine action our Lord Himself teaches in the Gospel, — I can of Mine own solf do nothing : as I hear, I judge. The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works” (John v. 30, xiv. 10). True, the Lord spake this with immediate reference to His Humanity, as dependent on His indwelling Divinity. But tliis makes no real difference ; for the Humanity of the Lord was the Word made flesh. And whether manifested in flesh or not, the Word could do nothing and say nothing of itself, but from the Divine Love that dwelt eternally within it. As Love is in Wisdom, and reveals and manifests itself by Wisdom, so does the Father in the Son, so does God in Christ. Therefore there is a most sublime and instructive truth expressed in the declaration, that the revelation that Jesus gave to John He Himself received from God. The truth is this : The prophecy which the Lord Jesus was about to deliver to His chosen servant camo from His Eternal Divinity through His Divine Humanity, from His infinite Love through His infinite Wisdom — a prophecy, therefore, which reveals the Lord’s Divinity and Humanity, His Love and Wisdom, distinctly and unitedly, to His Church, and through tlio Church to the whole human race.

The revelation which God gave to Jesus was to show unto His servants things that must shortly come to pass. It appears from this that the prophecy was intended for the members of the Church, or rather for those of them who, amidst the general defection, should be found steadfast in the faith, serving the Lord in singleness of mind. According to the spiritual meaning of the term, the servants of the Lord are the faithful, or those who serve Him in faith. But as there is no faith without love, and no faith and love without works, faith that worketh by love is that which makes men the Lord’s true servants. These are the servants to whom this revelation is immediately addressed. They only are interested in the subject of which it treats, and they only are capable of receiving the light which enables the mind to understand it. Unto the faithful servants of the Lord only can this revelation show the things which must shortly come to pass. The things revealed are those contained in the book which it is our aim to understand. It may be sufficient here to say, that these things relate to the Church, or the religious states of mankind, as the Lord foresaw them, and as this book reveals them. The Apocalypse presents events which were then future. The decline

THE REVELATION.

[Ciiap. I;

of religion and the end of the Church, which rendered the Lord’s Second Coming necessary, and the restoration of religion and the establishment of a new Church, which the Lord’s coming was to effect, are the general subjects of the Revelation. The Revelation does not giye a continuous history of the Church, from the time of the First to the time of the Second Advent. Glimpses are opened to the sight of the faithful, in some of the visions presented to the Lord’s servant, to whom the revelation was first made ; but the book as a whole describes the states of the Church as it would be at the close of the Dispensation, immediately before the coming of the Lord and the descent of the New Jerusalem, as the Church which was to succeed that which would pass away. The Apocalypse is said to have been given to show the things that must shortly come to pass. Eighteen centuries have passed since the speedy accomplishment of this prophecy was promised ; and all commentators are agreed that some things at least are still unfulfilled, while none can say with convincing certainty that any part has been accomplished. The shortly , which is emphasized by repetition, has in fact no relation to the time at which any or all of the events would come to pass. The periods of sacred prophecy are not measures of time, but of state. Attempts have been made to estimate historical periods from some of the prophetic times of Scripture, but with little success. A seeming coincidence has been discovered in one instance, in one of the prophecies of Daniel, by making a day stand for a year ; but no general application of the law has resulted in any consistent interpretation. Events occur in time, but the events themselves are the results, of states, and acquire all their significance from them. Times are therefore symbolical of states, time in the natural life of man being what state is in his spiritual life. And as the history of the states, of the Church is a history of the religious states of those of whom the Church consists, times are employed in Scripturo prophecy to describe its states. Prophetical numbers do not express measure of time, but the character of states. When the present prophecy has the promise of early fulfilment, the promise has therefore no relation to time. Shortly means certainly. The states therein described will certainly arise, for He who is omniscient has declared their coming. When, at the beginning of the book, it is said of the things predicted that they shall shortly come to pass, and at the end, that the Lord will come quickly, the falling away of the Church from its original purity, and the coming of the Lord to establish it anew upon an immovable foundation, are declared to be both equally certain. These events are predicted in other parts of the New Testament, and, though

THE EEVELATION.

variously understood, are part of tlie common belief of Christendom. All believe in a falling away of the Church ; all believe in a Second Coming of the Lord. The only difference is the manner in which these are to be understood.

The revelation did not come from Jesus Christ to the apostle directly : lie sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John. The heavenly messenger to the prophets of the Old Testament was called the angel of Jehovah; but he who came to the prophet of the New is called the angel of Jesus. Jesus and Jehovah are the same, with this only difference, that Jesus is Jehovah in His Divine Humanity; and the angel of Jesus and the angel of Jehovah are the same, with this difference, that the Church in heaven being, since the Incarnation, an image of the Lord’s glorious Body — His Divine Humanity, is in greater power than before the Lord was manifested in the flesh : for in Christ are gathered into one all things, both which are in heaven and which are on earth (Eph. i. 10). As the angel who came to John represents the Church in heaven, John here represents the Church on earth. And this, the Divine message, came from the Lord through the Church in heaven to the Church on earth. Followed from its Source, through all the degrees of its descent, the revelation came from God to Jesus, from Jesus to the angel, from the angel to John, and from John to the servants of the Lord. It came from the Lord’s Divinity through His Humanity, from His Divine Love through His Divine Wisdom, and thence through Heaven and the Church ; and thus it is the infinite Wisdom of infinite Love adapted to the apprehension both of angels and men. As John represents the Church on earth, he represents, abstractly, that which constitutes the Church. There are three principles which constitute the Church — love, faith, and works. These were represented by the three disciples who were nearest to Jesus, and often accompanied Him, without the others, on important occasions, as at His transfiguration. Of these, Poter was the type of faith, James of love, and John of works — and as good works are love and faith in act, and therefore include both these graces, John represents religion as existing in its fulness and perfection in a life of love and faith. Practical religion is vital religion. Love is the fulfilling of the law, and the fulfilling of the law is love ; for all true love terminates in action, and thus becomes actual love. “ He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me ” (John xiv. 21). Practical love is the last link in the chain which connects man savingly with his Maker.

2. John, to whom this revelation came, says of himself that he bare

THE REVELATION.

[Chap. I.

record of the Word of God, and of ilie testimony of Jesus Christ , and of all things that he saw. This may be better understood from what John has said in his Gospel. He there hears record, or witness, of tlio Word, which in the beginning was with God and was God, and which became manifest in the flesh. The Eternal Word, and that Word made flesh in Jesus Christ, is thus the Eternal Wisdom or Divine Truth, in its relation to Creation and .Redemption. As J ohn represented all whose inner life of love and faith is manifested in an outer life of holiness, his words are to be understood of those who bear witness to the Truth by the testimony of a holy life. These having the witness in themselves, they have set to their seal that God is true. They also have the testimony of Jesus Christ ; for those who acknowledge the truth of the Lord’s Word, whether it be the whole of Revelation or this particular portion of it, have the testimony of Jesus Christ, since the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy — of this as of all prophecy. This testim ony, which jh^irne^ClmmL-has, -consists in tliis T that Jea ns is the one only living and true God, the one Object of faith and w or- John alsoT>ears record oT all things which ho saw. These were the visions presented before him, which he has recorded. It is not necessary here to inquire into the nature of these visions. They were all symbolical, and describe states of the Church and of the human mind. John saw them, but those whom John represents understand them ; for to see is to understand. They were written that they might bo understood. It does not indeed follow that every one, or even every age, should fully understand them. Like other prophetic signs, they could not be understood till the time of their fulfilment, till the events themselves, of which they were the symbols, should give the means of interpretation. It is only because they are now fulfilled that they can now be explained and understood. Those whom John represents see spiritually what he saw in vision, or they see inwardly in themselves what he saw outwardly in the spiritual world.

: 3. After speaking of himself as the recipient of the revolution, John speaks of those to whom it is addressed and for whoso use it is designed. Blessed is he that readeth , and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein . The importance of the prophecy is indicated by the greatness of the benefit which results from reading, hearing, and doing what it contains. Blessedness is spiritual and heavenly happiness, and this results from spiritual graces and a heavenly state of mind and life. Something more is needed for this than reading and hearing the contents of the book. We must read and hear spiritually. To read and hear spiritually is to receive

THE EEVELATION.

the truths of the book into the understanding and the will. What wo read we receive through the eye, and what we hear we receive through the ear : and these two organs are symbols of the faculties to which they respectively minister. The eye ministers more directly to the understanding, the ear to the will. To read and hear is therefore to understand and to will what is heard and read. As this is to be attended with keeping the things written in the prophecy, the three natural acts of reading, hearing, and keeping, are expressive of the three spiritual acts of understanding, willing, and doing.

This makes the complete or perfect man, and a state which in itself is blessed or happy for ever. But where does our safety lie in reading and keeping the things written in this book, in which there is very little that men can either understand or keep 1 Two important tilings it not only contains but plainly teaches — the doctrine of the Lord and the doctrine of Life. It teaches the sole Divinity of Jesus Christ, and the absolute necessity of a life according to His Commandments. There are many other truths contained in the book, but they can only bo known by the language and imagery in which tlioy are veiled being spiritually understood. The prophecy having been revealed from heaven, it contains heavenly doctrine, and this, like all that revelation contains, is the doctrine of Truth and Goodness — the doctrine of truth to direct the mind, and the doctrine of goodness to guide the life.

A reason is given for revealing, and for the necessity of understanding, what the prophecy contains : for the time is at hand. We have seen that time means state, and shortly means certainly. To the Omniscient, with whom a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as one day, the shortest and longest periods are the same. So is it, in its degree, with all that proceeds from Him, and with all that relates to Him. Heaven and the church undergo changes of state ; and when these are to bo expressed by natural images, state is expressed by time, for timo in the natural world is analogous to state in the spiritual. Nearness of time, in relation to the Church, means therefore imminence of state. The time being at hand does not mean that even the states of the Church, which are described in the Apocalypse, were imminent at the time the prophecy was written, but that these states were imminent at the time to which it applies. For we have seen that the prophecy is not, as many have supposed, descrip, tive of the successive states of the Church from its beginning, but of its simultaneous states at the time of its end. It is as if the book had been written immediately before the events : for He who is its Author

THE REVELATION.

[Chai\ I.

liad all the future before Him ; and he who saw the vision beheld as present things which, as regards time, were yet in the distant future. In the purely spiritual sense near means interior, for what is interior is in one respect nearer to the Divine Being than what is exterior. And it is the interior states of the Church that are laid open in this prophecy. Every Church thinks itself the purest and the best. But God sees not as man sees, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. And only He who sees the interior and essential state of the Church can reveal it.

4, 5. After this exordium respecting the Authorship and object of the prophecy he was commissioned to deliver, the Seer turns to those whom he had been instructed to address. John to the seven churches which are in Asia. We have spoken of John as the receiver of the message, and as in that capacity representing the Church. Ho is now to be regarded as the deliverer of the message, and in the capacity of an ambassador he represents the Lord. John must be regarded as now employed on a most solemn and important mission. But, like each of the apostles, John had something distinctive in his representative character. As he represented the church, so does lie represent the Lord. But John comes before us in this instance also as a Seer and Teacher, and as such signifies one who teaches the doctrine of truth from the principle of love, which has goodness for its end.

John’s message is to the seven churches which are in Asia. The message can hardly be supposed to have been intended for the seven congregations in the seven churches in Asia Minor, to whom they are nominally addressed, or that their members were the only persons for whom this prophecy was intended. They may have understood something of the descriptions of their own states, of the admonitions, threatenings, and promises addressed to them. But these congregations have long ceased to exist, and it cannot bo conceived that a prophecy, many parts of which they could not understand and did not sco fulfilled, can have been intended exclusively or even principally for them. The seven churches of Asia, like all else in the book, are symbolical. The seven churches on earth, and the seven spirits in heaven, are the counterparts of each other, the seven churches representing the whole Church on earth, and the seven spirits around the throne representing the entire Church in heaven, as well as the Spirit of the Lord, which pervades and sustains it.