The Revelation of Jesus Christ; a comprehensive harmonic outline and perspective view of the book

Contents

Introduction iv

Description vi

I. Preliminary Survey 15

Introduction

FTER the author of these lectures had studied for eighteen years the wonderful book, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ," God by His Spirit and by His Providence led to their delivery.

While the discourses do not go into minute details, which would make the book tedious to the general reader, yet their inspirational character will make them valuable to those who wish some knowledge of The Revelation, and yet have not the time to study this book of the Bible exhaustively.

The wonderful unfolding of things in the immediate future will animate the heart and spur the reader on to greater zeal and sacrifice for God, and cause him to strive earnestly for the "Overcomer's" position.

A careful reading of this volume will not only make some things plain that have hitherto been sealed to many, but the spiritual illumination, which accompanies the opening up of the truth, will flood the soul, and bring a blessing both to heart and mind.

The author in this harmonic exegesis does not antagonize or deny any of the other three schools of interpretation, the Praeterist, the Historic and the Futurist, but in a large measure harmonizes them, making the truth most comprehensive as he

iv

INTRODUCTION brings the five "converging lines of vision" up to the Epiphany of the Lord Jesus. The vivid picture of "things which must shortly come to pass," as they are outlined in The Book of Revelation, are unfolded in a way that will both thrill and startle.

A study of this volume, or even a cursory reading, will lead one to see that the final events of the age are upon us ; that while God has been gathering together His people, Satan also is gathering his forces, and that the Antichristian powers of the world are beginning to head up. But the line of demarkation between the good and evil will be clearly seen only by those who understand the Word of God. Already, even many Christians are being deceived by the "lying wonders" and the "strong delusions" because they are not familiar with the prophetic word, and such will some day awaken to the awful fact that instead of having followed the Lord Jesus Christ, they have been serving the Antichrist.

To those who are faithful and true to the end, comes the message from the Lord of glory : "Behold I come quickly: Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book."

William Hamner Piper.

Chicago, October, 1911.

v

Patmos

Rev. i :g.

PATMOS, the island on which the Apostle John received The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is in the Aegean Sea. Its greatest length is ten miles, and its greatest width six miles ; it is volcanic, bare and rocky.

The only title of the island to fame is that it was the place of banishment of St. John, who was exiled thither under Domitian in 95 a. d., "for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus," and released about eighteen months later on the tyrant's death. It was a dreaded place of banishment by the Romans.

The modern town stands on a hill top in the southern half of the island. It clusters at the foot of the monastery of St. John, which, crowning the hill with its towers and battlements, resembles a fortress rather than a monastery. The streets are narrow and winding, and the population is about 4,000. Scattered over the island are about three hundred chapels. At one time the library possessed about six hundred books, but there are only two hundred and forty left.

On the road from the port of La Scala, on the eastern side of the island, to the modern town which is about twenty minutes walk from La Scala, there is still shown a grotto in which the apostle is said to have received the heavenly vision of the Apocalypse. It is reached through a small chapel dedicated to St. Anne.

The "Acts of St. John," attributed to Prochorus, one of his disciples narrates the miracles said to have been wrought by the apostle during his stay on the island.

During the Dark Ages Patmos seems to have been entirely deserted, probably on account of pirates, but in 1088 the Emperor Alexis Comnenus by a golden bull which is still preserved, granted the island to St. Chris-

vi todulus for the purpose of founding a monastery. This was the origin of the monastery of St. John, which now owns the greater part of the Southern half of Patmos. At the beginning of the Eighteenth Century there were over a hundred monks but the number is now greatly reduced. The abbott has the rank of bishop and is subject only to the patriarch of Constantinople. There is a school in connection with the monastery, which formerly enjoyed a high reputation in that region.

The modern town was recruited by refugees from Constantinople in 1453 and from Crete in 1669 when these places fell into the hands of the Turks. The island is subject to Turkey; the governor is the pasha of Rhodes, the population Greek. The women are chiefly engaged in knitting cotton stockings, which, along with some pottery, form the chief exports of the island.

According to Greek tradition, the Apostle John wrote his Gospel in the village of Katavafsis, which no longer exists.

The Seven Churches of Asia

THE Seven Churches of Asia were all located in Proconsular Asia, in the immediate neighborhood of Ephesus. There were other churches besides these, as Hierapolis and Colosse, both near Laodicea, and referred to in the Pauline Epistles; but these are named as the most important, and a group of seven is the arrangement most frequently found in the Bible, especially in its symbolical writings. To the Seven Churches were sent the messages in the opening chapters of the Revelation.

EPHESUS Rev. 2:1.

1. Ephesus was the most important city of the district, its church was the largest, and it was the first addressed. It was the metropolis of Proconsular Asia, and may be regarded as the third capital of Christianity, as Jerusalem had been its birthplace, and Antioch the

vii center of its foreign missions. It stood a mile from the Aegean Sea, fronting an artificial harbor, in which met the ships of all lands, and above which rose the temple of Artemis (Diana), celebrated as the most magnificent building in Asia Minor, though the image which it enshrined was only a shapeless block. Its population was principally Greek, though with a large Oriental mixture. Here Paul labored for more than two years, working at his trade and preaching the Gospel. Through his endeavors most of the "Seven Churches" were founded. Ephesus is now an utter desolation, haunted by wild beasts. Near its ruin is a small Turkish village called Ayasalouk.

SMYRNA Rev. 2: 8.

II. Smyrna is north of Ephesus, about forty miles in a direct line, though longer by the route of travel. It is on the Aegean Sea, at the head of the Hermaean Gulf, at the foot of Mount Pagus. The earliest city was built B. C. 1500, by the Greeks, and destroyed and rebuilt several times. From the time of Alexander the Great, who was one of its builders, it became an important city. Its earliest mention in Christian history is in the Revelation. Polycarp, a pupil of John, was martyred here A. D. 155. His grave is still shown on a hill near the city. Despite fires, earthquakes and wars, it has retained its importance, and is now the largest city on the Asiatic side of the Aegean Sea, having a population of nearly 200,000 people. The modern city is about two miles from the ancient site.

PERGAMOS Rev. 2:12.

III. Pergamos, more properly Pergamum, was sixty miles northeast of Smyrna, in the district of Mysia, three miles north of the little river Caicus, and twenty miles from the Aegean Sea. It was the capital of a small but wealthy kingdom, which arose in the breaking viii up of Alexander's empire. It was celebrated for its large library, which at one time contained 200,000 manuscripts, but was by Mark Antony presented to Cleopatra, and removed to Alexandria. The city was devoted to the worship of Aesculapius, the patron divinity of medicine; and was, like most idolatrous places, corrupt in its morals. It is now a city of 25,000 inhabitants, called Pergama.

THYATIRA Rev. 2:18.

IV. Thyatira was a city in the province of Lydia, on the road from Pergamos to Sardis. It was founded by Alexander the Great, who planted it with people from Macedonia, which may account for the fact that "Lydia of Thyatira" was found by Paul at Philippi, in Macedonia. It was a prosperous manufacturing town, but never a great city, and its scarlet cloth still has a reputation throughout the Orient. It is now a place with a population of from 17,000 to 20,000, and is called ak Hissar, "white castle."

SARDIS Rev. 3:1.

V. Sardis lay thirty miles south of Thyatira, between the river Hermus and Mount Tmolus. It was the capital of Croesus, the wealthy king of Lydia, whose empire was overthrown by Cyrus the Great. After the time of Alexander it belonged to the kingdom of Pergamos, until its absorption into the Roman empire. It was a place of extensive commerce, which led to prosperity and the worldliness of the Christian church, rebuked in the message of the Revelation. It is now a miasmatic region, with scarcely an inhabitant, and bears the name Sert Kalessi.

PHILADELPHIA Rev. 3:7.

VI. Philadelphia was about twenty miles southeast of Sardis, on the river Cogatnus, a branch of the Her-

ix mus. It was built and named by Attalus Philadelphia, King of Pergamos, and was the center of a rich farming region, which has kept it inhabited through all the vicissitudes of the centuries. It was destroyed by an earthquake A. D. 17, but rebuilt. Its population is now about 10,000, and its modern name is Allah Shchr, "city of God."

LAODICEA Rev. 3:14.

VII. Laodicea was the capital of Phrygia, and was fifty or sixty miles from Philadelphia, according to route. It was on the bank of the Lycus, near Hierapolis and Colosse. Its ancient name was Diospolis, but was changed by the Syrian king, Seleucus II., in honor of his wife, Laodice. In A. D. 62 it was destroyed by an earthquake; but its people were sufficiently rich to decline the aid of the Romans in rebuilding their city. Its worldly prosperity was reflected in its church, which received the sharpest rebukes of the Revelator. The Mohammedans destroyed the city, which is now a mass of ruins, surrounding a village called Eski-hissar.

(The foregoing descriptions of the Seven Churches are taken from Dr. J. L. Hurlbut's Bible Atlas.)

x

AVE YOU visited the Cathedral of Freyburg, and listened to that wonderful organist who, with such enchantment, draws the tears from the traveler's eyes while he touches, one after another, his wonderful keys, and makes you hear by turns the march of armies upon the beach, or the chanted prayer upon the lake during the tempest, or the voices of praise after it is calm? Well, thus the Eternal God, embracing at a glance the keyboard of sixty centuries, touches by turns, with the fingers of His Spirit, the keys which He had chosen for the unity of His celestial hymn. He lays His left hand upon Enoch, the seventh from Adam, and His right hand on John, the humble and sublime prisoner of Patmos. From the one the strain is heard : 'Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints;' from the other : 'Behold He cometh with clouds/ And between the notes of this hymn of three thousand years there is eternal harmony, and the angels stoop to listen, the elect of God are moved, and eternal life descends into men's souls." — Gauss en's Theopneustia.

xii

OMEONE has painted a picture of a maiden whose lover left her for a voyage to the Holy Land, promising on his return to make her his beloved bride. Many told her that she would never see him again. But she believed his word, and evening by eveningshe went down to the lonely shore, and kindled there a beacon-light in sight of the roaring waves, to hail and welcome the returning ship which was to bring again her bethrothed.

"Even so that blessed Lord, who has loved us unto death, has gone away to the mysterious Holy Land of heaven, promising on His return to make us His happy and eternal Bride. Some say that He has gone forever, and that we shall never see Him more. But His last word was, 'Yea, I come quickly.' And on the dark and misty beach sloping out into the eternal sea, each true believer stands by the love-lit fire, looking, and waiting, and praying and hoping for the fulfilment of His word, in nothing gladder than in His pledge and promise, and calling ever from the soul of sacred love, 'Even so, come, Lord Jesus/ And some of these nights, while the world is busy with its gay frivolities, and laughing at the maiden on the shore, a form shall arise over the surging waves, as once on Galilee, to vindicate forever all this watching and devotion, and bring to the faithful and constant heart a joy, and glory, and triumph which never more shall end." — Seiss.

xiii

BLESSED is he who readeth, and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein: for the time is nigh."

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HIM that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall nevermore go out : and I will write upon him the Name of My God, the New Jerusalem, that which descendeth out of heaven from My God : and I will write upon him My new Name."

* * *

THIS same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."

"Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

xiv

I

UR first lecture will, of necessity, be introductory. It will contain a great deal of outlying truth though not very much exposition.

All through these talks I shall use Dr. Tregelles' translation, for that is considered by all Bible expositors the very best translation of the Book of Revelation. It is truer to the original tongue than any other. I therefore use it for the illumination there is in it.

Let me read the first paragraph of the book which covers the first three verses:

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must come to pass speedily ; and which He signified, having sent by His angel, unto His servant John: who testified the Word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, what things soever he saw. Blessed is he who readeth, and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein: for the time is nigh/'

Now the title of this book, as given in our regular versions, is a misnomer. It is not "The Revelation of St. John the Divine;" it is "The Revelation of Jesus Christ/' by, to or through St. John. S« the first five words of the book give us the title. It was given to John and written by him while he was in exile, having been sent to the Isle of Patmos by the Roman Emperor Domitian about the year 95 A. D. It is a vision of the glorified Christ. John was shown everything that pertains to His glory in the heavens and also that which pertains to His judgments upon the earth. These things were shown him fifty years after the Lord Jesus had returned to heaven, all of which makes it a very striking book, beyond all others in the Bible.

Now this word "Revelation" is from the Greek word apocalypsis, the opposite of apocrypha; that is to say, a book that is open, a book in which everything is uncovered, unfolded, open to view ; just the opposite of mystery, of apocrypha, which is something concealed or held back as not authorized or needful to us ; hence the apocrypha is out of the regular canon of the Holy Scriptures. Many people study the apocrypha and recommend it rather than this book. They say, "This book is hidden, you cannot understand it." It is the very opposite of that; it is the book of revelation, the book of vision, of things to view and things to get ready for. I suppose it is not understood better because of following the teaching of certain schools, schools of half light, half truth, and concerning them I must speak a moment, so you will understand from what position I present you this book.

I am going to read an extract from a little pamphlet Dr. Chapell and I prepared eighteen years ago, when I began the study of this book in a special way, and wore out during that special study part of four Bibles.

"We are not going to allude to the theories of post millennialists at all, those who look for the kingdom before the coming of the Lord. Let us understand that. Neither are we going to allude to the theories of those Adventists who believe that the career o-f man in the flesh ends with the coming of the Lord ; but rather we are referring now to the different phases of belief in the great body of all intelligent pre-millennialists, who are looking for the coming of the Lord as a crucial and culminative point in the plan of redemption. All of these are in substantial agreement and in harmony of sentiment and action."

I have no desire to parade and magnify their differences; differences which grow out of the fact that each emphasizes some shade or phase of this truth. Dr. Chapell and I felt called bv the Lord to bring all these shades of truth, all these aspects of prophecy each of which contains truth, together in one harmonic whole. Time will decide all details of the various shades of truth, and as we get nearer to the parousia of the Lord, we shall come nearer together. I am satisfied of that and my heart is glad to meet anybody and talk about these deep things of God. So now if you will be just as free in the Spirit as I am, God will help us and bless us as we study this wonderful book.

THE REVELATION OE JESUS CHRIST

We shall allude to these different schools only for the sake of information, especially for the sake of beginners who may be perplexed in what they read from time to time. For example, one writer in speaking of the Antichrist may refer to the Roman Papacy; another in speaking of the same subject may refer to some mighty infidel king that will he developed; another to some great Mohammedan leader. We believe that the Papacy and Mohammedanism, that is to say the beast and the false prophet, and the powers of the nations will all culminate in, and combine together, to produce the fulness of the power of the Antichrist.

Four Schools of Interpretation

Now we want to look at the four schools. First, the Praeterist; those who suppose that standard prophecies like Matt. 24 and this book of Revelation were all fulfilled before and soon after the destruction of Jerusalem, and yet that cannot be, for the book of Revelation was written after the destruction of Jerusalem.

The second is what we call the Presentist or Historical school which holds that prophecies like Matt. 24 and the book of Revelation cover the whole church period and have been in process of fulfillment all down through the ages, and some day will come to an end and the Lord will come, just as we come to the end of a book or a song. This school generally adopts what we call the year-day theory in regard to such dates as are contained in Daniel, Chapters 7, 11 and 12. It considers the Pope or Papacy as Antichrist, believes that the rapture of the saints in glory and the coming to earth of the Lord with His saints will be simultaneous and likely to occur at any time — that is to say, the parousia and the epiphany are one and the same event.

The most prominent advocate of this school, present and historic, who is now living, is that mighty and blessed man of God, Dr. H. Grattan Guinness of England. I am glad to tell you that they now are beginning to see along the line of what w r e call the new harmonic school. Dr. Guinness has done much to advance the cause of missions, so do all who have any conception of a pre-millennial coming of the Lord. That view of the case makes mission-workers, puts the fire in your soul, puts in the "go ye" until everybody's feet tingle to go with the message. This school holds that the great and double denouement of the Lord's coming is liable to occur at any moment. This theory, of course, was not and could not be held by the Early Church, since no such Antichrist as the papacy then existed. It arose with the reformers in Martin Luther's time and because of what Martin Luther and his people endured at the hands of Rome, they called her Antichrist. It became the historic teaching, consequently is more or less incorporated into the common thought of all Protestantism.

Now I come to the third, called the Futurist school, the very opposite of the Praeterist. This holds that everything is yet future, that the standard prophecies I have already mentioned in Matthew, Daniel and Revelation, are yet to have a literal, minute fulfillment, mainly during a period of seven years or Daniel's last week, during which a personal Antichrist shall hold sway over the earth, or at least over the ancient Roman earth, that old Roman Empire being revived and composed of ten subordinate kingdoms — the toes of the great image. There is some truth in this theory which the other schools do not take up. Put these three phases together and what will you have? You will have all the truth there is in the Bible on this subject harmonized. This Futurist school holds that prophetic days are not year-days, just the opposite of the other schools; it holds that a considerable period will intervene between the paroitsidjthe coming of Christ for His saints, and the epiphany or the coming of Christ with His saints to earth, but they are not quite agreed what that period will be. Some of these teachers think it will be three and a half years, half of the week ; others think it will be the whole week, seven years. According to this theory, political, religious and other changes may be looked for, as the signs of the approaching advent, and while the rapture of the church may occur with very little warning, marked events will take place before that great day when "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

This is the theory that troubled the Thessalonian church ; the Early Church got hold of the extreme "futurist" theory and they thought that Christ had already come. Therefore Paul had to write a second letter and say, "It cannot come, beloved, until the man of sin is revealed until Hj^LzATT/^ t^ytP^ 1 (the Holy Spirit) who is holding down and keeping things together, is taken out of the way. Then shall the wicked one be revealed, the Antichrist." II. Thess. 2:1-10. This may be shown from many citations from the Church Fathers. The theory fell into obscurity during the Middle Ages, especially after the rise of the historic school, which sprang up after the Reformation, but it was revived again in the stirring times at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century.

Perhaps the ablest living advocate of this "futurist" school, is G. H. Pember, who wrote that most comprehensive work, "The Great Prophecies;" another Englishman, a prominent minister of the church of England, for we have some grand teaching coming out of the Church of England, the best mother of theology I know of in the world. Of course, if you want a good, hardheaded father you go to the Scotch church, but the Church of England has brought down rivers of truth from God's Word. But she dwelt too much in the Word and lost much of the Spirit. Let us who are getting the overflowing of the Spirit in these days not miss the accuracy and value and power of the Word of God. It is easy to drift and be one-sided.

Now we come to the school I joined eighteen years ago. Dr. Chapell, who has long since gone to glory, and I, knelt in a room down in New York City until two o'clock in the morning, praying and talking about the things of God, and he said to me, "I see you seemed to put things together in your message tonight, in a harmonic way. I guess you are both an Arminian and a Calvinist." I said, "I am; I have an Arminian heart and a good Calvinistic backbone to hang it on, and a good Baptist head not afraid to go under water."

Now the fourth school is called the comprehensive or harmonic school. That has not been recognized as a distinct school until very recent years, and so it sounds a little strange, but it is now growing in favor, and the advocates of all the other three schools are coming rapidly into it and seeing the parts of truth they each hold, all being put together, and coming to "see eye to eye, when the Lord shall build again Zion," and therein is the prophecy fulfilled right in itself. Its position is that the Praeterist, the Historic and the Futurist schools are in the main correct, except as they deny each other. You will find it much the same in any other line of truth, that we are all correct in the main except as we deny each other. Now let us quit denying each other, and let us get to the main thing. God will bless us and we > shall all be good workers together with

Christ. Don't pay so much attention to that which denies, that which crosses, but pay more attention to that which harmonizes, moves together. It is claimed by advocates of this school that the Bible is so wisely constructed by divine foresight that its prophecies have more than one application, and we may miss some of them if we lay too much emphasis on any one phase; first, a shadowy and general, and afterwards a more distinct and specific fulfillment; the general pointing on down to the consummation, when the specific occurs, and when every eye can see the fulfillment. Just as for example, the Old Testament converged to the first coming of Christ, until everybody could see it, so will it be now in the time of the second coming of Christ, when the general and historic aspects of prophecy converge into the specific at the time of the Consummation.

Now in this line the prophet Isaiah speaks of the servant of the Lord in a double sense, meaning first, the nation of Israel with its history, and afterwards the Lord Jesus Himself. On the other hand the prophecies of Antichrist may refer first to the papacy through the centuries,' and afterwards be fulfilled in a personal false christ, whose career will last for only a few years; for, as John informed them, "the spirit of Antichrist is working now." By and by it will fill a man and head up into a man, just as the Spirit of God did in the Lord Jesus. The testimony of the Lord Jesus Himself is the spirit of all the prophecy that came down and was fulfilled in the man Christ Jesus. So you see we have to keep our eyes open on all sides. A great deal of Scripture, is double-barrelled and some even threebarrelled. That is, it has a literal, a spiritual, and a dispensational bearing.

I do not take much credit for it, but we began to preach these things when we began an undenominational work, where we had liberty, and therein is the advantage, after all, of any man being free from all "creeds" and "communions/' He can get all the truth and the whole Gospel in Christ Jesus without let or hindrance, and many are sure to receive it.

The greatest exponent of this "Harmonic" school in many ways is the Rev. Mr. Baxter of England. They are all three Englishmen that I have mentioned. They have gone into this subject in a more persistent, strenuous way than we have on this side. There must be therefore some truth in this harmonic school. History confirms the position of some things in the historical or presentist school, and many things confirm the position of the praeteristic school and many things confirm the view of the futurist school. There must therefore be truth in all these theories.

Scriptures like Isaiah 14, Daniel 11, II Thess. 2 and Revelation 13, have such distinct, specific and personal elements in them that the historic fulfillment can by no means exhaust them. There is a time and a place yet before us when these great passages I have referred to will have a startling fulfillment before the eyes of this world. Look at Revelation 13 ! Most of that is yet future; nearly every phase of it, and II Thess. 2. Therefore it is concluded there must be truth also in the futurist school. If then all three of these views contain truth, will they not be found to harmonize? Can we not harmonize them by the grace of God? We trust to be able to do this in the expositions of this book of Revelation. Therefore, I come to you antagonizing nobody who believes in the true millennial coming of the Lord, but harmonizing all three views of it.