STEPS
TO THE
THRONE
By G. D. WATSON
[Book Cover Writing]
“For 25 or 30 years of my lirfe I
accepted the old Roman Catholic notion, which is accepted by most Protestants,
that the second coming of Jesus world be after the Millennium, and at the time
of the general judgment. Then, for a few years, I was unsettled in my views on
that subject, for I saw so many portions of Scripture that could not have any
reasonable interpretation in harmony with that old theory.
Early in 1896 I began to pray very earnestly for the Holy
Spirit to open up the scriptures to mr clearly on
that subject. In two or three weeks after the Spirit began unfolding to my
mind, in a remarkable way, the Book of Revelation, and the parables of Jesus,
and other scriptures on the pre-millennial coming of Christ, and the light on
that subject has been increasing ever since. Some years ago I published a small
book, called “The Seven Overcomeths,” giving only the interpretation that
applied to the interior spiritual life, but did not then see their ulterior and
perfect relation to the coming of Jesus, and His millennial reign. I have given
in this book what the Spirit has given me of the application of the seven overcomeths,
not only to the inner life in the present state, but their application as
preparing the believer to reign with Jesus in His coming kingdom.”
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Contents
PREFACE PAGE 5
CHAPTER I THE EMBLEMS IN REVELATION PAGE 7
CHAPTER II “THE SEVEN
CHURCHES” PAGE 15
CHAPTER III “HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH” PAGE 22
CHAPTER IV “EAT OF THE
TREE OF LIFE” PAGE 29
CHAPTER V “NOT HURT
OF THE SECOND DEATH” PAGE 35
CHAPTER VI “THE HIDDEN
MANNA” PAGE 40
CHAPTER VII “THE WHITE STONE”
PAGE 46
CHAPTER VIII “TILL I COME”
PAGE 51
CHAPTER IX “POWER OVER
THE NATIONS” PAGE 60
CHAPTER X “THE
MORNING STAR” PAGE 69
CHAPTER XI “WHITE
RAIMENT” PAGE 78
CHAPTER XII “A PILLAR IN THE
CHAPTER XIII “I WILL SUP WITH HIM” PAGE 92
CHAPTER XIV “HE WILL SUP WITH ME” PAGE 97
CHAPTER XV “IN MY
THRONE” PAGE 108
CHAPTER XVI “THE RAINBOW AROUND THE THRONE” PAGE 117
CHAPTER XVII “THE LIVING CREATURES IN THE THRONE” PAGE 126
CONCLUSION ... PAGE 138
SUPPLEMENT CHAPTER:CHRIST’S RETURN TO
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[PAGE 5]
PREFACE
FOR TWENTY-FIVE OR THIRTY years of my life I accepted the old Roman
Catholic notion, which is accepted by most Protestants, that the second coming
of Jesus would be after the millennium [sic],
and at the time of the general judgment. Then, for a few years, I was unsettled
in my views on that subject, for I saw so many portions of Scripture that could
not have any reasonable interpretation in harmony with that old theory.
Early in 1896 I began to pray very earnestly for the Holy
Spirit to open up the scriptures to me clearly on that subject. In two or three
weeks afterward the Spirit began unfolding to my mind, in a remarkable way, the
Book of Revelation,
and the parables of Jesus, and other scriptures on the pre-millennial coming of
Christ, and the light on that subject has been increasing ever since. Some
years ago I published a small book, called “The Seven
Overcomeths,” giving only the interpretation that applied to the
interior spiritual life, but did not then see their ulterior and perfect
relation to the coming of Jesus, and His millennial reign. I have given in this
book what the Spirit has given to me of the application of the seven [PAGE
6] overcomeths, not
only to the inner life in the present state, but their application as preparing
the believer to reign with Jesus in His coming kingdom.
If my life is spared, I have several other books to write upon
this subject. I trust the blessed Comforter will apply the things in the
following pages to the hearts of many thousands, and stir God’s children to
prepare themselves to meet the coming King.
- G.D.W.
* *
*
[PAGE 7]
Chapter I
THE EMBLEMS IN REVELATION
IT OFTEN HAPPENS THAT when the head of a great government wishes to communicate
very secret and important matter to one of its ministers in a foreign land it
adopts a cipher code, that is a language in signs, so as to transmit the
message without any one being able to understand it, except the person to whom
it is sent. This is precisely what Jesus did in the Book of Revelation. We are told that God gave this revelation to his Son Jesus, and Jesus
gave it in signs, or telegraphic ciphers, to an angel, and the angel gave these
signs unto John. Hence this last and crowning book of God’s word, is written
out largely in ciphers. This was done in order that the message might be safely
transmitted through the dark ages. If the Romanists had perfectly understood in
centuries gone by, all the teachings of this book, they would have destroyed it
from the earth; and so God adopted a method of sign language, in order that no
one might understand it except those for whom it was especially designed. As
the coming of Christ gets nearer, the Holy Spirit is more [PAGE
8] and more revealing
the secrets of this wonderful book to His humble and thoughtful servants in all
the earth; and many things which have been concealed through the Dark Ages are
now beginning to be unfolded in the clear light, which the Holy Spirit is pouring upon those who are entirely
devoted to God.* Let us remember,
that the Holy Spirit selects His emblems with a perfect scientific accuracy,
and all the metaphors and symbols used in Scripture are chosen with infallible
wisdom. If we take the pains to read the Book of Revelation, and cull out all the various emblems
which are used therein, we will find that all of them are explained in the book
itself. And if we can discover the meaning of these various types we have the
secret key to unlock nearly everything in the book. It is my purpose in this
volume to give an exegesis of the second, third and fourth chapters, showing
more particularly the connection between
Christian holiness and the coming reign of Jesus on this earth; but I have
thought it well to give in this chapter a brief explanation of the various
emblems in the book, that the common reader may be able to pursue an individual
study of all the book.
[* Bold type, underlining, and highlighting
words, are used through to emphasise important statements for the reader to
note. - Ed.]
“Stars” in this book represent Ministers,
more particularly the office of the Minister, not only a church Minister, but
also a State Minister. Hence it denotes Princes, or under rulers in Church or
State.
“Candlesticks,” represent separate congregations of
Christians, not a denomination, or a great body, but simply congregations, or a
church in its local and social organic form.
“Heaven” in this book, in the majority of
instances, means God’s Kingdom among men. This will be kept strictly in view,
for all sorts of erroneous and fantastic interpretations of this book have
resulted from the [PAGE 9] notion that the word “Heaven” means the third Heavens where God the
Father has His throne of glory. The word “Heaven” as used in the parables of Jesus,
refers continually to God’s Kingdom among men, and, in nearly every instance,
this word Heaven is in the Greek in the plural
number, proving that it is a term of large and manifold meaning. Jesus
says: “The Kingdom of the Heavens is like a net cast into the sea, in which
were gathered both good fish and bad fish,” which simply means the
“Woman” in this book, is always a type of an
organized body of professed Christians. Throughout the entire Bible, woman is a
type of the church, and, when used in the plural number, represents the various
branches and organized bodies of professed worshipers of God. If this type were
always remembered it would save the reader from a great many foolish
interpretations of this book. For instance, those who are spoken of in Chapter 14 as the Bride of the Lamb, are
said to be “pure virgins,” “who were not
defiled with other women.” The word “women” means the various branches, and bodies of ecclesiastical
systems, which become worldly, and fashionable, and filled up with various
carnal practices. But those believers who are sanctified, and wedded to Christ, are delivered from all
ecclesiastical corruption. And the picture is that of one pure woman, keeping herself from the [PAGE
10] various carnal
practices of other women, that is of other organized church bodies.
“Sun” in this book, typifies a King, or a
Kingdom, that is royal splendour, imperial power. And in many other portions of
Scripture, the word “sun” represents kingly authority. When Joseph in his dream saw the sun, moon,
and stars bow to him, the sun was a type of Jacob, who was really a King, the
moon a type of his mother, who was a Queen, and the stars, a type of his
brethren, who were Princes and Ministers of State. Hence, throughout this book,
the “sun” means kingly authority, as when John saw the “woman,” that is the Christian Church, “clothed with
the sun,” that is
imperial splendour. Again, the angel standing in the sun, to proclaim war,
represents the angel of God, stirring up all the royal heads among the nations
to declare war.
“Moon” typifies a Queen, or a minor King, or
Principality, a sub-King. As when “the woman clothed with the sun,” had the moon under her foot, that is
the great Catholic church, clothed in royalty, had all the other Kings and
“Four beasts” in Revelation, should always be read “four living creatures.” The word “four beasts” is a horrible translation of the
original, which is the very word used for eternal life. So always read the “four living
creatures,” which
are the same creatures described by Ezekiel, and Isaiah, as the seraphim and cherubim. They always represent glorified saints,
especially those who take high rank in the Kingdom of grace and glory. Hence
these “four
living creatures,” are
represented as being in the throne with Jesus, during His millennial reign.
They certainly are saved and glorified men, for in one place we are told, that
they praise God for having been saved and washed in Christ’s blood from among
the nations. “Beasts,” when not connected with the word “four,” [PAGE 11] always represents human governments,
and especially professedly Christian governments, which are yet full of
tyranny, and oppression, political scheming, and selfishness, and greed. The
Greek word for “beast” in all such
places, is a very different word from the four living creatures, and signifies
a wild, bloodthirsty beast of the forest, a
true type of the ambition, and greed, and tyranny of politicians.
“Smoke” in this book, represents whatever
comes out of the mouth, in the form of either prayer, or blasphemy. Prayer is
represented by incense, a sweet, fragrant smoke, typifying the fragrance of the
prayers of God’s servants. But blasphemy and cursing from the mouths of those
who are lost, are represented by the smoke of burning sulphur.
“Fowls” in this book, is always an emblem of
demons, and evil spirits. In fact this is the type of the fowls of the air, all
through the Bible. Jesus says, “the fowls of the air picked up the grain that had
been sown by the wayside,” and afterwards tells us these fowls are devils. In His
parable on the Christian church, he represents it as a mustard plant, growing
so large that the fowls of the air lodged in its branches, which has been sadly
fulfilled, in the fact that myriads of demons lodge in the various branches of
the nominal church. Hence the “fowls”
that fatten on the horses, and on captains, and on warriors, represent the
demons feasting themselves on a battlefield, for they delight in the slaughter
of human beings.
“Waters” represent the souls of mankind. Hence
the woman sitting on many waters, represents the organized church of Rome,
presiding over the souls of many nations. Muddy water represents wicked souls,
casting up mire and dirt. Clear, glassy water, represents pure souls, cleansed
from all sinful tempers and desires, and filled with a beautiful transparency,
without guile, without evil tempers, like unto clear glass. This is the picture
of what [PAGE 12] the souls of men will be in the millennial age, when they will be presided over by the glorified saints of
the Bridehood, who are represented as standing upon the glassy sea.
“Man-child” in this book, is a type of the
martyrs, who were slain by the Romish church during the Dark Ages. It is a
great mistake to call the “man-child” in chapter 12 Jesus, for the prophecy in that
chapter refers emphatically to something that had not occurred at the time John
was alive. The “man-child” represents those Protestants who were
converted and sanctified inside the bosom of the Romish church, and which
caused her trouble and sorrow.
“Red dragon” is a type of the Romish Inquisition.
It was the incarnation of the devil, in an organized institution for bloody
murder, to capture and kill the Protestants, as soon as they dared confess their
saving faith. Hence the “Red dragon stood in front of the woman,” that is in front of the church, to
devour her children, that is to slay the Protestants, as quick as they were
born, that is, as soon as they confessed their faith.
“Horses” in this book represent organized
aggression. In all ages the horse is a type of organized and swift power. The
horse is the swiftest of all animals, and the one mostly used in times of war.
The word “horse” is used among all nations in
Proverbs, as “war-horse,” and “swift as a race-horse,” and such expressions.
The “white horse” represents organized and aggressive holiness, pushing its way
from pentecost out among the nations.
The “red horse” represents organized opposition to Jesus, and bloody wars
against the truth.
The “black horse” represents organized ignorance, darkness, superstition, such
as was the case in the Dark Ages.
The “pale horse” represents organized forms of ecclesiastical back-sliding,
where bodies of believers, professing [PAGE 13] to be alive, have a pale and ghastly
type of life, such as is the case at the present day.
“Winds” represent heresies, terrible
delusions, terrific scourgings from God, the great tribulations, which are to
be let loose on the earth, just as soon
as God gets all His elect Bride wholly sanctified, and sealed with
the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire.
“Vials” represent the outpouring of God’s wrath and judgment upon different nations, and at
different periods, such as the French Revolution, and the late Civil War in
“Frogs” represent evil spirits, going forth
to seduce the people into false systems of faith. These frogs take on the form
of spiritualism, Swedenborgianism, Christian science, theosophy, Mormonism, and
baal-worship in the various lodges of secret societies.
A “pure river” represents the Holy Spirit, which flows out eternally from
the Father and from the Son.
The “Tree of Life” represents Jesus, as the incarnate Redeemer and Saviour.
The number 144,000 represents that elect company through all
the ages, who have measured up to a life of perfect faith and obedience, and
who have been qualified to form the Bride of the Lamb. This number is used because
it is a multiple of 12, for the number 12 in Scripture always represents the
Three represents the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Four represents humanity, especially redeemed and glorified
humanity.
Six represents imperfection, the number by which Satan
counterfeits the work of God.
Seven represents salvation, or the Christ life in His saints,
for as 3 and 4 make 7, so God and man, united, constitute salvation.
Ten represents the number for multitude, as thousands, or tens
of thousands, etc.
[PAGE 14]
Twelve represents the Divine government, for as 3 times 4 make
12, so God multiplies himself in His creatures, which constitutes His
government.
Forty represents proving, testing, trying.
Fifty is the complete cycle number, the jubilee number, hence
a type of the
There are a few other emblems, which are used, which I may refer
to in succeeding chapters. But if these types are kept in mind, the ordinary
reader will be able to have a common sense and satisfactory understanding of
the knowledge of the things that God has been pleased to make known to us in
this wonderful and last book of His infallible word.
* *
*
[PAGE 15]
Chapter II
“THE SEVEN CHURCHES”
Rev. 1:
11
IN ORDER TO ARRIVE AT any correct understanding of these three chapters, which we have
laid before us for our study in this book, we must endeavour to find out the
significance of these seven churches, which Christ selected, to whom the
message of the apocalyptic visions were especially sent. The Bible is God’s
sample book. The Holy Spirit could doubtless have given us thousands of Bibles
similar to the one we have, and all of them been filled with remarkable
characters and incidents, but He has selected samples of men, and events, and
truths, which His wisdom saw were best adapted for our instruction and
salvation. From the hundreds of churches which existed in the days of
“The
“The
“The
“The
[PAGE 19]
“The
“The
“The
In the following chapters, let us go back and review the
various promises made to these churches, and see what are the qualifications,
and the steps of spiritual victory, requisite for obtaining a place at the
table of the Marriage Supper, and a
place in the government of the
* *
*
[PAGE
22]
Chapter III
“HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH”
Rev. 2:
7
AMONG THE VERY FIRST conditions of being qualified for membership in the Bridehood
of Jesus is that of having a willing and obedient heart to
hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Seven times within the limits of the
second and third chapters of Revelation, Jesus
commands us to hear what the Spirit shall say. Our Saviour tells us that
nobody can come to the Son of God, except the Father shall draw him. It is the office of the Father, through the operation of His law
applied by the [Holy] Spirit, to awaken us and draw us in the spirit of repentance, to go to Jesus for pardon and
renewal of life. Then
when Jesus receives us, and remits our sins, and gives us power to become sons
of God. He then leads us to the personality and fullness of the Holy Spirit. He
tells us to tarry until we are endued
with power from on high, and that He will pray the Father, and we shall
receive another Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, who will sanctify us through the truth, and take the things of
Christ, and reveal them unto us. When it [PAGE 23] is said, the Lord is my Shepherd, and
He leadeth me beside the still waters, it is simply a picture of Jesus, after
saving us from our sins, leading us to the clear river of the ever-flowing Holy
Spirit, that we may be filled with pure
love, and put under the dominion of the abiding Comforter. Then, when the
Holy Spirit gets possession of our nature and life, He in turn leads us back to
the eternal Father, and reveals to us in ever-widening and brightening fields
of light, the personalities, and love, paid fellowship, of the Father and the
Son. The Father leads us to the Son, and the Son leads us to the Holy Spirit,
and the Holy Spirit leads us back to the uncreated and unbegotten
person of the Father, from whom eternally comes the Son, and from whom
eternally proceeds the Holy Spirit. This is the beautiful, fascinating circuit,
around which the redeemed soul travels, with ever-increasing light and love.
1. In order to hear what the [Holy] Spirit saith, we must have ears that
are Spiritual, to know His voice. Man has a body, Greek soma, and a soul, Greek psyche, from which we get the word “psychological,”
and then he has a spirit, Greek pneuma. A failure to recognize
this threefold nature of man, has been the cause of a thousand blunders in
religious teaching and experience.
The great mass of professed Christians simply regard man in
his twofold nature, of body and soul, and thereby confound the reasoning
faculties, with man’s moral and spiritual being, and hence regard the Christian
religion as a mere system of doctrines, and opinions, and creeds, and that
religious experience is merely on the plain of the natural, mental faculties, a
mere thing of sentiment and psychology. The Scriptures abundantly teach us,
that there is an “inner man” of the spiritual nature, and that this “inner man” has spiritual senses of hearing,
seeing, [PAGE 24] touching, tasting, and smelling, and is endowed with spiritual intuitions,
and instincts, which are just as definite and real as those which the body has
in connection with the nervous and mental system. In the case of the natural
man, this spiritual nature is utterly dormant, the inner senses are there, but
closed in a state of sleep. There are certain animals that hibernate during the
winter, or lie frozen for months in the ground, and are utterly unconscious of
life or sensation. But in the spring they thaw out, and their senses are
brought to life by the warm sun, then they can see and hear and move. In like
manner the spirit of a sinner is in a state of moral death, as if frozen, but
under the warm light of repentance, and saving faith, and the new birth, these
inner spiritual faculties are open to consciousness, and the play of divine things
upon them. Then, under the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, these senses
of the inner spirit are purified, and intensified, and enlarged, so that they
can detect the sights, and sounds, and sweetness, and beauty, and realty of
spiritual things, of divine truth, and divine personalities, and heavenly
experiences. This is why our Lord says so often, “He that hath ears to hear let
him hear.”
2. Unless we have this threefold nature
of man in mind, and clearly recognize the realm of the inner spirit, as being
that part of our nature, upon which the Holy Ghost operates in a direct manner,
producing supernatural and heavenly experiences, we will never understand the
full teachings of Scripture, or the real sphere of the spiritual life. The soul
is that part of our nature which looks out through the body, toward the realm
of nature, through the bodily senses, with its reason, comparison, and natural
affections, and sentiments, and emotions. Our inner spirit opens out toward
God, and toward the whole supernatural world. There are two words for “love” in the Greek Testament, one is philia, which always means human love, and should have
been translated uniformly by [PAGE 25] our word “affection”.
The other word is in the Greek agape, which invariably means divine love. Now the word philia, or
human affection, has its seat in the
soul, in the mental nature, but the word agape, divine love, has its seat in the inner spirit. Hence those two
words in their uses in the Greek Testament, mark the distinction between man’s
soulish nature, and spiritual nature. Now there
are myriads of professed [regenerate] Christians,
who have never had their spiritual nature thoroughly aroused, and renewed, but who have a mental
religion, and love God merely in their human, soulish philia, or human affection. Thousands on
thousands in the church, love God just about like they love the founders of
their country, or as they love their political parties, or their earthly
friends. Such persons are not [in another sense fully] saved, and it is exceedingly difficult to get them to see the need of a divine,
supernatural salvation. This truth is forcibly manifested in the
conversation which James had with Peter, just before our Saviour’s ascension.
After restoring the disciples to Himself, after His resurrection, Jesus said to
Peter, who claimed to love Christ more than anybody else, “Simon,
do you have divine love for me?” (Greek Agape.) Peter said. “Thou knowest
I have human affection for you.” (Greek Philia.) The second time,
Jesus said. “Have you divine love for me?” and the second time, Peter said, “I have human
affection for you.” And then the third time, Jesus dropped down to the level of Peter’s human
love, and said. “Do you really have human affection for me?” and this pierced Peter’s heart to the
core. But after Pentecost, Peter rose to the level of Christ’s spiritual love,
and used the word agape, divine love,
ever after. Now in order for us to hear what the [Holy] Spirit saith, we must be spiritual
beings, with our spiritual nature vitalized, and illuminated, so that we can
recognize things in the spiritual world, just as readily and vividly, as our
inward senses recognize the phenomena of the material world.
[PAGE 26]
3. When our inward spirits are
thoroughly purified, and filled with the indwelling Comforter, it becomes by
far the dominant and controlling part of our compound being. Persons who live
on the plane of the animal nature, regard the body and its senses as
all-powerful. But persons who have their soulish nature enlarged, and
exercised, and their minds greatly illuminated, and educated, come to realize
that the mind is greater than the body. But when the spirit is thoroughly
purified, and supernaturalized by the great floods of pure love, and divine
light, it arises to an altitude of strength, and dominion, over all the
reasoning faculties, and the bodily senses. It is in this condition, that the
imagination and reasoning and propensities of the mind and the body, are
brought in subjection to that lofty, and serene Christ-life, which is spoken of
by the apostle.
4. The Holy Spirit who made the voice,
and made language, can most certainly utter Himself in the inner being of His
own children, in such a way as to be clearly understood. The inner spirit of
man is the region of intuition, and the birthplace of axiomatic truisms. As the
body has its appetites, and senses, and as the mind has its reasoning, so the
spirit has its intuition, and instinctive perception of divine verities. Hence
the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the channel of these intuitions, which
always act instantaneously, and independent of our surroundings, and superior
to logic. The [Holy] Spirit often speaks to us by inward mental voices, distinctly recognized
by the spiritual ear, and this voice may be at times, so penetrating, and
distinct, that it seems an audible voice uttered through the air upon the
outward ear, as in the case of young
Samuel. The Holy Spirit may again speak to us, by vision, that is by
flashing upon the inward retina of our spirit, a beautiful vista of light, or
open up spiritual scenery, and spiritual events, to [PAGE 27] the interior eye of the mind, which
are oftentimes more indelibly fastened upon us than any scene in nature. He may
also speak to us through dreams. If we belong to God, we are just as much His
when we are asleep as when we are awake, and in all generations the Holy Spirit has spoken to His servants
in the dreams of night, and when He
so speaks, there is something so peculiar and extraordinary in it, that the
believer never confounds such dreams with the ordinary vagaries of a lawless
imagination. At other times He speaks to us through His word, by directing to some special passage, or
marvellously lighting up some obscurity in the Scriptures, or revealing whole
trains of new truth. Again He speaks to us through
our love nature, drawing us out after God, with intense yearnings and sweet
attractions towards the things He wants us to know. Again He speaks to us by
giving extraordinary discernment into the movements of
5. Many think it
is dangerous to get into a spiritual realm, where we can hear the voice of God
and become familiar with supernatural phenomena in the life of the soul. But
the danger lies in a fictitious religion, which is open to all the devices of Satan.
It is always dangerous to run a ship in shallow water, and real safety lies in
going out to sea. So with the spiritual life, the danger lies in a lack of the Holy Spirit. The blessed Holy
Ghost is as safe a guide as is the eternal Father, or the lowly Jesus, and it
must grieve His infinite loving nature that myriads of professed [and
regenerate] Christians [PAGE
28] are afraid of
Him, and will not dare trust themselves to His full possession. The Holy Spirit
in all the manifold operations within us, will never do a thing that
contradicts the revealed word of God, or that clashes with a manifest Divine
Providence. God cannot antagonize Himself, and the inner and the outer
movements of His will are always found to harmonize. It is the reality of the
abiding Holy Spirit within us, bringing us into conscious communion with the
three persons of the one ever-blessed God, and speaking to us through His
many-languaged dialect, that gives real supernatural power to our lives, and
puts into our work a divine force, and makes us in many instances an
incomprehensible enigma to carnal people, just because He is making us more
beautifully intelligible to that innumerable company of angels, and the spirits
of just men made perfect, and the church of the first born, into whose blessed
fellowship we are brought by the Spirit of glory and of God which abides in us.
* * *
[PAGE
29]
Chapter IV
“EAT OF THE TREE OF LIFE”
Rev. 2: 7
TO EACH OF THE seven churches Jesus makes a special promise if they will overcome.
These special promises are doubtless given with an infinite fitness of wisdom,
in connection with the several churches, and also in connection with the true,
victorious believers, in the several stages of Christianity, set forth by the
seven churches. But in all correct interpretations of Scripture we must
remember that it always has more than one fulfilment. The same Scripture has
one fulfilment in the individual, and another in the collective body of
believers. It has one fulfilment in the inner, spiritual life, and another in
the outward, visible, and providential history. It has one fulfilment in the
present Age, and another in the coming Age of glorification. Hence to confine any
one scripture to a single application will lead to much error and
misunderstanding of many portions of God’s word. This is what the apostle
means, when he says “no scripture is of any private interpretation,” that is, it must [PAGE 30] not be confined to one single
application, as only to one person,
or one place. Thus while these several promises,
given to the seven churches, had a fitness to those churches as they then
existed in Asia, the same promises have had a special fitness to the real
overcoming believers in the various seven stages of the history of the church,
and furthermore they have a beautiful and close fitting application to the
various steps of the individual believer, as he progresses from the new birth
through all the degrees of Christian life, till he reaches his place in the
Millennial Kingdom with Jesus. We shall find a regular consecutive order in
these promises, which resemble the steps up to a throne. The first of these
promises involves the impartation of the divine life to the believer. To him that will hear what the [Holy] Spirit saith, and overcome his sins, Jesus says, “I will give him to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Various truths which grow out of this
promise may be arranged as follows:
1. God cannot bless nothing. He must have
some living being upon whom to confer His blessings. Hence, throughout all
Scripture, the impartation of life is the fundamental work of God, both in
creation and redemption. Before the Creator could bless Adam, or confer upon
him the rights of dominion, He must “breathe into his nostrils the breath
of life, and make him a living soul.” In the twelve-fold blessing that
Moses promised upon the tribes of
2.
The life that Jesus imparts to the
soul in regeneration is emphatically a divine life, and yet it is in some
mysterious sense a different species of life from that which the angels and
other holy and intelligent beings of other worlds may have. There is nothing
more marvellous and bewildering in all the universe than life, and then the
almost infinite variety of life. There are seven different types, or grades of
life, cognizable to our thought. The lowest is mineral life, for the very rocks
grow, and have a life which we cannot search out. Then comes infusorial life,
which doubtless embraces numberless species, and covers that territory that
lies between minerals and vegetables. Then comes vegetable life, which fills an
enormous region in nature, extending from microscopical plants, and mosses, up
to the gigantic trees of
3. The term Tree of Life is very
significant. Any tree is a divine poem, a marvellous creation of wisdom, which
no mind of man has yet fathomed. A fruit tree is an exquisite and intricate
type of the Lord Jesus. There lie hid away in the bosom of the earth, inexhaustible
resources of chemical juices, sufficient to feed millions of population. But
how can we get that ocean of unseen juices out of the earth, converted into
fruit for the sustenance of these hungry millions? A fruit tree is God’s
invention to mediate between earth’s juices and the mouths of the hungry
multitudes. The tree spreads its roots out, deep and broad, in the soil, and
gathers up, with mysterious energy, the heat and light of the sun, the sugar,
and starch, and other nourishing substances, and gases, from the earth, the
rain, and the air, and through its trunk and by its sap, transmutes all these
into blossom, and delicious fruit, and the multitudes are fed. The earth in
this case represents the infinite and eternal substance of the three persons in
the Godhead, and the incarnation of the eternal Son, in a human Body, and a
human Soul, coming forth in our world, is like that tree. He draws up into His
precious body the attributes and qualities of the infinite divinity, and
transmutes them into a form of life, which by faith we can eat of, and be
nourished thereby in our spirits, just as really as our bodies feed on the
fruit, which the tree has brought to us out of the unseen storehouses of the
earth. The humanity of Jesus is the trunk of the tree, through which we receive
divine love, and perhaps we shall see in eternity, as we cannot now, that we
get a higher measure and sweeter form of divine love, through [PAGE
34] the humanity of
the Son of God, than could possibly have been transmitted to us in any other
manner.
4. This promise will doubtless have its
ultimate fulfilment in the glorified state. There may be literal trees of life
in the Paradise of God, upon whose fruit glorified creatures live. There is
nothing in the word of God, or the analogies of Christian reason, to contradict
such a conclusion. And we will have occasion to revert to this again farther on
in this book. But if such is the case, they will still be but blessed visible
emblems of that divine nourishment, that eternal banquet, which will be
furnished to our immortal spirits, through the glorified humanity of Jesus.
What a joy it is for any created thing to live, and every living thing has a
mysterious pleasure in its life. But the joy of living the Christ life, must
surpass all others. To love with the same love that
Jesus had, to think over His thoughts, to feel with His sympathies, to share the interior instincts of His
heart, to pray out of the breath of
His prayers, to grow with His growth,
and to know in the light of His knowledge,
this is the glorious calling that God
offers to penitent sinners, this is
to eat of the tree of life.
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*
[PAGE 35]
Chapter V
“NOT HURT OF THE SECOND DEATH”
Rev. 2:
11
THE NEXT STEP in the qualification for obtaining a place
of royalty with Jesus, is that of so overcoming by
faith of all the difficulties in the way of Christian growth, as not
to be hurt of the second death. In order to understand what the second death
is, we must have a scriptural knowledge of what is the first death. When God
told Adam that in the day he ate of the fruit of the tree of good and evil, he
should surely die; the literal rendering would be, “in dying,
thou shalt surely die.” That is in the day he ate of the
fruit, he would begin to die, and that death would be consummated in a complete
death, both spiritually and physically. Adam did die spiritually, in the loss
of primitive holiness, and though his body lived nearly a thousand years, yet
it at last yielded to mortality. Now the first death is that which is entailed
upon us by the fall of our first parents. Death nowhere means annihilation, but
simply the separation of any living being or organ, from its true foundation of
life. Hence spiritual [PAGE 36] death is the separation of the human spirit from God,
who is the ceaseless fountain of holiness and love, and when the soul breaks company with the Spirit of God, and loses inward purity and holy love, it enters a state of soul death. And
the death of the body consists, not in the destruction of a single particle of
the bodily organism, but in the separation of the body from the animating [‘spirit’
and] soul which inhabits it. A piece of
plank was once a living tree, but it has been separated from the vital sap which
once flowed in it, and is dead, but not one atom of it is annihilated. So Satan
and all his evil angels, were once in their primitive creation in fellowship
with God, but they have broken union with the eternal fountain of love, and are
utterly dead in sin, and filled with iniquity, yet not annihilated, nor have
any of their original faculties or capabilities been destroyed, but are utterly
perverted in a life of sin. Hence the iniquitous heresy of the annihilation of
men’s souls is a delusion of Satan, and comes from an ignorant confounding of
the term death, with non-existence. Now this first death, which comes from
Adam, both morally and physically, has been atoned for by the incarnation and
death of the Son of God. So that no human being will ever be finally lost
because of Adam’s transgression. Jesus has purchased, by His sufferings and
death and resurrection, an absolute indemnity from the fall of Adam, making
ample provision for all of the consequences of Adam’s transgression, both for
the removal of all original sin, and the raising again from the dead every
human being. Every infant born in the human race comes into being under the
covenant of redeeming grace. We are expressly told that, “as in Adam
all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive.” From this we learn that the iniquity [PAGE
37] of Adam, as an
open transgressor, is not imputed to any infant in the form of actual guilt,
and that the principle of indwelling sin, which is in the infant, has its ample
remedy in the shed blood of Jesus, and if the infant dies before reaching the
age of accountability, its nature is thoroughly purified, on the basis of the
covenant which the Son of God made with the Father, as the Second Adam, and
true head of the race. Thus we see that of all the millions of human beings,
who may be finally lost, not one of them will be permitted to attribute his
everlasting woe to our first parents. God will never allow any human being to
attribute his ruin and perdition to another fellow-creature. He has dealt with
the human race on such an enormous scale of mercy, and justice, and equity, and
redeeming love, and impartiality, that every one will be compelled to attribute
his ruin to himself. Thus the first death, both morally and physically, flows
out from the first fall of the race of Adam, and the race have all been
redeemed from that first fall, and that first death. Now let us remember that
Jesus is the Second Adam, and the Second Head of the race. If, when we come to
years of accountability, we turn away from the Lord Jesus, “who is the
second man from Heaven,” and persistently turn away from Him, rejecting or postponing the salvation
he offers us, and die in that attitude of rejection or neglect, we thereby fall
a second time, and plunge into a second death. The apostle tells us that there
is only one sacrifice for sins, and if we turn away from that one Saviour,
there can be found no other redeemer, but a fearful looking for of judgment,
and of fiery [sic] indignation from the Lord. This second fall, resulting from the
rejection of Jesus, entails a second death in the utter separation of the soul
from [PAGE 38] all fellowship with God, and all the touches of His grace, and also the
banishment of the soul and body into the torments of hell, with the devil and
his angels. We see that with regard to the first fall, and the first death,
there is a limit. God’s covenant of redemption rushes in to intervene, and stop
the results that would naturally flow from the first fall, and the first death,
in order that every creature may have the advantages of saving grace. The
second fall and the second death have no limits to them, but their sad and
awful consequences flow on forever. The same terms of duration which are used
in Scripture concerning the destiny of the saved are also used concerning the
destiny of the lost. There is no Greek
word which exactly corresponds with our word “eternity,” but the word used in the Greek
Testament is that of “ages of the ages.” And when it speaks of our having eternal life, it is that
of living to the “ages of the ages,”
and these same terms are used expressive of the duration of the lost. It
requires as much grace to keep us saved as it does to save us in the first
place. In fact our continuance in salvation is but a prolonged and extended act
of saving grace. So that when we are born of God, and eat of the tree of life,
we are by faith to continue in the path of overcoming, lest we lose that life
and drift away from the Lord Jesus, and fall into the second death. There are
scores of scriptures which teach emphatically that after having once been
saved, the soul may lose its grace and sink into utter darkness. In the 5th
verse of the epistle of Jude, where our version says, “that after the
Lord saved the Jewish people out of the land of Egypt, He afterward destroyed
them that believed not,” in the Greek it says, “that
after he saved them from Egypt they were destroyed because they would not
believe [PAGE 39] a second time,” that
is, they had faith to cross the Red Sea, but would not have faith to go into Canaan. And then the apostle Peter tells us (as translated
in the common version) “it were better for us not to have known the way of righteousness
than after we have known it to turn from the holy commandment”, but
in the Greek it reads, “it were better for us not to
have known the way of justification,
than after we have known it, to turn from the
commandment to be holy.” This
is exactly what thousands [of regenerate believers] have done,
commenced to live by faith, and been justified by faith, and then utterly rejected the commandment concerning holiness, and have forfeited all they gained, and in many instances they have utterly rejected Jesus and fallen into
the second death. So this promise in the second overcometh is
exceedingly vital. It requires an overcoming faith
not only to be born again, but to keep [one’s self] from backsliding - [and ultimately from apostasy] - and falling into the second death.
* *
*
[PAGE 40]
Chapter VI
“THE HIDDEN MANNA”
Rev. 2:17
THE NEXT STEP in the series of qualifications for
reigning with Christ is that of entering the second veil, and having access to
the ark of the covenant, and eating of the hidden manna. Jesus says to the
believer who reaches the third overcometh, “I will give him to eat of the hidden
manna.”
In this step we have the doctrine and experience of sanctification. Although holiness is
not definitely mentioned in this verse, yet it is emphatically and fully
expressed by emblem. Any truth set forth in Scripture by an inspired type is
just as truly accurate as when set forth by a didactic statement. Thus we are
taught in the Epistle to the Hebrews that the first veil represents
regeneration, which is the beginning of the holy life, and that the second veil
represents the perfecting of holiness and the full baptism of the Spirit as the
Shekinah flame between the wings of the cherubim. We see from the typology in
this promise that the experience of sanctification is always placed, in
Scripture, soon after the work of regeneration. The great [PAGE
41] mass of the
nominal church have an impression that Christian holiness must come very late
in life, that it is by the added growth of long years of Christian service, and
many suppose it is hardly consciously received until about the time of death.
But all such views are the result of mis-education, and of the natural unbelief
of the human heart. Throughout all Scripture, both in precept and type, the
blessed work of heart purity and the fullness of the [Holy] Spirit
are set forth as coming soon after conversion. Thus the crossing of the Red Sea
is a type of the new birth, and the
crossing of the
Also in the slaying of the passover lamb and the sprinkling of
the blood upon the door posts we have a type of the penitent coming to Jesus to
get under His shed blood. But it was just fifty days from that event to the
Feast of Pentecost, or the baptism of the Holy Spirit, proving by clear
Scripture type that the [regenerate] believer should receive the sanctifying gift of the Holy Spirit not later
than fifty days from his justification.
The same truth is taught in manifold forms of expression and
imagery in the Bible. Thus in these seven overcomeths we find the third step in
the series to be a definite promise of sanctification. To understand the
purport of this promise of eating the hidden manna more perfectly, let us refer
back to the history of the manna in the writings of Moses. We there read that
the manna fell on the open plain every night, and every morning the people
gathered it up, and ground it and made it into cakes of bread. This manna was
not hidden, but open to the gaze of all the people. When the Ark of the
Covenant [PAGE 42] and the Tabernacle were constructed God told Moses to make a golden pot,
and gather up some of this manna that lay on the ground and put it in the
golden pot, and put the pot in the
Ark of the Covenant, and put the Ark in the second veil, or the holy of holies.
This manna thus preserved in the
In this connection it will be very interesting to notice what
were the contents of the Ark of the Covenant. We are taught both by Moses and
Paul that the sacred Ark was a type of the Lord Jesus, the acacia wood being a
type of His humanity, and the covering of pure gold a type of His divinity,
that this Ark contained first the two tables of stone upon which God had
written the ten commandments, and next the almond rod that Aaron held in his
hand, and that budded and bore almonds, and next the golden pot containing the
manna. Now all three of these things significantly set forth the living word of
God. The tables of stone represent God’s word in the form of law. The almond
rod represents this word in the form of promise, and the hidden manna, sweet
and nourishing to the taste, represents it in the form of fruition and
experience.
Thus God’s word comes to us first as an inflexible command,
arresting us and putting us under conviction for our sins and the need of
salvation. Next the message reaches us in the form of promise, with its buds
and blossoms of hope and faith. Then the word comes to us as an inward
conscious experience. That is the sweet manna. It is also worthy of notice,
that each of these things in the
These things could not happen by chance, but all the details
set forth unmistakably the two great
works of saving grace, the one in
saving from [God’s] wrath,
and the other purifying us for the heavenly life. The manna that fell on
the ground would last only a day, typifying the transitoriness of the blessings
and forms of nourishment in the lower state of grace, but the manna in the
golden pot, kept sweet for a thousand years, indicating the permanent
blessedness and richness of our spiritual lives while we dwell in the holy of
holies and under the direct operation of the abiding Comforter. The manna is
the very life of Christ, upon which all believers feed, and we must remember
that the manna which lay on the ground every morning, and that which was
preserved in the golden pot, were exactly alike, but each existed under different circumstances, and in a different
relationship.
In like manner all believers live on the Lord Jesus, but there
is a feeding on Christ in His outward life, and then there is an entering into
His inner life, and by a thorough crucifixion with Him, and unlimited
abandonment to His [PAGE 44] will, the soul enters into the inner region of Christs
spiritual life. Thus the apostle tells us that when we enter the holy of
holies, we are to go through the veil which is the rent flesh of Jesus, by
which we pass into His very heart life. And Jesus tells us that after we have found the first rest, we are
to take His yoke upon us, and learn
the secret of His inner being, that
He is meek and lowly in heart, and
then we shall find deep, permanent
rest to our souls.
Thus the truth is spread out before us, under various forms of
expression, that we are not merely to know Christ according to His outward life
in the flesh, but to enter the secret recesses and fountains of His inner being
and know Him, in the language of the apostle, “according to the power of the endless life.” This participation of the inner
life of Jesus is the real hidden manna, which He offers to all those who are overcomers.
I may say in concluding this chapter that it is highly
probable that the Ark of the Covenant was preserved at the time that the temple
and
* *
*
[PAGE 46]
Chapter VII
“THE WHITE STONE”
Rev. 2:17
THERE IS ANOTHER PROMISE included in the third overcometh, which is that of a pure
heart, under the type of a pearl. Jesus says, “I will give to him that
overcometh a white stone, and in the stone a new
name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it.” This white stone can be interpreted
by the words of our Saviour, in which he says: “The
Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Here we see the pure heart, most beautifully
illustrated under the typology of the pearl.
To get a clearer view of this emblem, let us note the
following points:
1. The pearl is very valuable. They are
obtained with great difficulty, and at a risk of life, and are sold for
considerable sums. Jesus in His parable gives us to understand that one pearl
could be of such magnitude and worth that a merchant would expend for it all of
his goods [PAGE 47] and all his wealth. This is pre-eminently true of the
infinite worth of a pure heart. There are many treasures which human beings
hold very dear, and in spite of
their greed for material riches, yet when the test comes the great majority of
mankind hold the treasures of good health, or of a sane mind, or of lofty
genius, as paramount to mere material wealth. But God has taught us that a pure heart has in it a divine worth, which far exceeds all the riches of the
material or intellectual world. Solomon gives in his Proverbs one of the
finest climaxes in the Bible concerning the untold value of a pure heart, which
he sets forth under the name of wisdom. He says that “it is better than silver,” and then “superior to fine gold,” and then “more precious than rubies,” and then that “all the things the natural
heart can desire are not to be compared unto it.” The heart is the fountain of all moral and mental
being. It is the inward spring, out of which flows all the diversified streams
of life, and when the heart is thoroughly purified from every unlawful desire,
and every unloving temper, so that out of its pure, pellucid depth there flows
only the graces of the [Holy] Spirit, which secures to its possessor advantages both in this life and the life to
come infinitely above all price. He is the wise man who sells out everything in the world for this pearl.
2. The pearl is formed within a living
creature. Pearls do not grow in the open air, or exposed to the beating
elements. They are formed within an oyster, hidden away in the depths of the
sea. Thus a pure heart is formed in the very centre of an immortal being. It is
not an accident, that lies exposed to outward life. It is a living thing, and
has its seat at the very centre of moral being.
3. The pearl is produced out of
suffering, and by the crucifixion of a life.
When the oyster opens its mouth to feed at the bottom of the sea, a small grain
of sand is washed into it, which makes an incision in the soft part of the
shell fish. In its effort, either to expel the [PAGE 48] grain, or to heal the wound, it
emanates a saliva, which is formed around the grain of sand, and makes the
pearl. Thus our hearts are made pure, through the crucifixion of our natural life. Our inner being
of self-will, and selfishness, must be pierced by the sharp word of God. There must be a breaking down of our thoughts, and plans, and ambitions,
and selfish ease; and out of this interior crucifixion, which makes the heart to bleed, and
the eye to weep, and the whole self-will to succumb to the authority of God, there is formed the blessedness and beauty
of a clean heart.
4. The pearl has the character of
remarkable beauty, among the precious gems of the earth. There is a delicacy,
and softness of beauty about it, which far surpasses that of many gems, because
it has been formed out of a living substance. In like manner, a heart that has
been thoroughly washed in the blood of Jesus, and cleansed from all hardness,
and bitterness, and impurity and made soft and white and gentle by the power of
the Holy Ghost, has in it a beauty which attracts the notice of the loving
angels, and makes it as dear to God as the apple of His eye. No wonder that the
infinite One himself has said, “that his eyes go to and fro throughout the whole
earth, to show Himself strong, in the behalf of that person whose heart is
pure and perfect toward Him.” The eyes of glorified beings can sweep over a moral
landscape, and read the different qualities of the moral universe, and see the
different shades and degrees of holiness, as swiftly and accurately, as our
eyes can discern the fascinating face of the magnificent landscape, or the
exquisite colours and perfection of a flower garden.
The things that men prize highly in this world, are oftentimes
an abomination in the sight of heavenly beings, but those who have perfectly
humble and tender and spotless hearts, stand out to their gaze with
extraordinary beauty and perfectness.
[PAGE 49]
5. We are told in John’s vision of the
New Jerusalem that the gates of the City were each one of a solid pearl. All of
the Bible emblems are selected with infallible propriety, and as a pearl is
that thing in the world which beautifully represents a pure heart, so it is
that thing which represents the gateway into the City of
6. In this white stone Jesus promises
to inscribe a new name which no one can know except the person receiving it. A
name in Scripture is always indicative of a character, hence a new name is a
new inward character, a divine and heavenly experience, which no one can know
but the conscious soul in which it is wrought. Others may see the fruit of a
pure heart and hear the testimony to that blessed work of grace, which has been
accomplished in it, and they may be convinced of the reality of its existence,
but after all there is an inward core of our being, into which no one can be
admitted but our Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier. Our loving Lord has, in
beautiful wisdom, reserved to Himself the inner chamber of our immortal souls,
the fountain of consciousness, the secret [PAGE 50] source of character, and the home of
moral intuitions. There is the secret fountain, where the Holy Spirit works the
sweet miracles of saving grace. There are many marvellous things connected with
our creation and existence, but none more so than the fact that God makes us
each one to live a secret life with Himself. A life in which we are
impenetrably walled in from all other creatures, and where He alone dwells,
that is in the citadel of our nature. It is this “white stone,” of inward purity that God offers to work into us if we by faith overcome.
* * *
[PAGE
51]
Chapter VIII
“TILL I COME”
Rev.
2:25
THE PERSONAL COMING of Jesus back to this earth is everywhere set forth in the
New Testament as the acme and crown and consummation of this present age. In all those passages where in the common version it speaks of the “end of the world,” the Greek says “the end of
the age.” And if it had not been for the
blunder of translating the Greek word “age” by the word “world,” there would not have been so much
darkness and misunderstanding on our Lord’s return to reign on this earth. Just
as the first coming of Christ in His incarnation was the end of the Jewish age,
and all the types and shadows and forms of the Jewish ceremonial religion had
their fulfilment and termination in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus, and after that the Jewish age
with all its peculiar forms and ceremonies passed away, so the second coming
of Christ back to this earth will be the
end of the Gentile age, and the
fulfilment and termination of all the present order in the Christian Church.
[PAGE
52]
When our Saviour instituted the sacrament which commemorates
His death, we are told that every time we partake of that sacrament “we do show
forth His death till he comes again.” Hence the Lord’s Supper is an index finger, pointing the
believer throughout this [evil
and apostate] age to the reappearing
of his Lord. At the return of Christ all the Christian sacraments will come
to an end, and also the present
order of Christian ministry and the various forms of church government
and manifold teachings of church theology. As all the streams flowing down
the mountains find their terminus and rest in the bosom of the sea, so all the
manifold streams of history in the present order of things will find their
fulfilment and rest in the presence and personal reign of Jesus on this earth.
The Jews and Gentiles for the past two thousand years have had
separate and distinct histories of their own, and we are told in the New
Testament that
This idea may still further be elaborated in its application
to Christian stewardship. Jesus, in addressing the church in connection with
the fourth overcometh, says, “but that which ye have hold fast till I come,” proving conclusively that there is a certain responsibility of faith and obedience in the believer, which does not terminate until the coming of the Lord.
[PAGE 53]
The same truth is elaborated in the parables of our Saviour.
We are told in the 19th chapter
of Luke,
that as Christ in His last journey approached
This gives us an insight into the vital relationship between
the coming of Jesus and the winding up of the history and the various responsibilities and trusteeships of the present age.
This truth has a still further application to
Christian character and experience. Instead of regarding the coming of
Jesus as a mere trifling matter which has but little connection with Christian
faith and experience, we find in the New Testament that it is continually put as a fundamental object of faith and reward,
and as [PAGE 54] having a powerful relationship with our present
sanctification and fitness to see His face and participate in His coming
kingdom. It seems that invincible narrowness of mind is one of the
inevitable entailments of our fallen condition, and this narrowness of mind has had no more conspicuous exhibition than the
divorcement of various truths in the Scripture which God has united, but which
men have attempted to separate. A large class of people have in modern
years become intensely interested in the personal coming of Jesus, but have studied that subject in a mere material and political
aspect to the utter neglect of a deep experience in personal holiness.
Many of them are mere materialists, denying the immortality of the soul, and
either denying or utterly ignoring
the necessity of a personal and full sanctification by the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand a large number of deeply spiritual
persons who accept the full Bible teaching on personal and full salvation as a
fitness for life, as well as for entrance to heaven, have entirely
passed over the subject of our Saviour’s return to this earth, and of His personal reign over the nations for a thousand years.
They have relegated the whole subject of Christ’s coming to what is popularly
called “Second Adventism,” and in many
instances spoken lightly or triflingly of the coming of Jesus, and with all
their zeal and devotion for the spread of scriptural holiness have stoutly
maintained the Roman Catholic doctrine of post-millennialism, that is, that the
church was to bring the millennium, and that Christ would not appear again
until at the general judgment of both the saved and the lost. But when we look
into the New Testament, we find both of these classes to be holding to mere
partial truths. The Holy Spirit has blended these great truths into unity, and
taught us in scores of places the direct
connection between scriptural holiness and the pre-millennial appearing of our
Lord.
Jesus teaches us in the 22nd
chapter of
Luke the [PAGE 55] immediate
connection between following Him in His humiliations and temptations, and the
receiving of a place in His kingdom when He comes to reign on the earth. In
the first chapter of Philippians, Paul gives us one of his apostolic
prayers that the believers “may have the love of God abounding in them more
and more, that they might be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ.” Here is a statement of the direct
relationship between the fullness of love and the preservation of the believer
until the coming of Jesus. Again in the third chapter of Colossians the apostle tells us that we are to be dead to sin, and risen with Christ,
and to seek those things which are heavenly, where Christ sitteth at the right
hand of God, and that our affection is to be set on things divine, because our
life is hid with Christ in God, and “that when Christ our life shall
appear, then we shall appear with Him in glory.” So here again the Holy Ghost has
stated the supreme connection between a state of present holiness
of heart and life and the personal appearing of our Lord.
Again in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians,
Paul tells those believers that his hope and joy and crown of rejoicing, or as
the Greek has it, his crown of glory, is in the perseverance of these saints
until they meet in the presence of their Lord Jesus at His coming. In all these
Scriptures there is no allusion to the death-bed, or the gave, as a terminal
point of salvation, or stewardship, but everything focalizes “in the presence of Jesus.” Again, in the same Epistle and third chapter,
the apostle prays that the Lord would increase the love of the saints toward
one another, to the end that God might establish their hearts without blame in
holiness before God at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ with His saints. Again in the fifth chapter he prays that the
God of peace himself would sanctify us entirely, and preserve our whole spirit,
and soul, and body, without blame, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus the whole tenor of the New [PAGE 56] Testament is: “Hold fast till I come;” “Occupy till I come;” “Render your
stewardship when the Master returns;” “Be filled with love, and preserved
without blame until Christ comes,” and these two great facts of personal and full
salvation and the second coming of Jesus are continually blended together.
We learn from the tenor of all these Scriptures, and similar
passages in the Old Testament, that the presence of Christ himself constitutes
the centre and substance of His kingdom. For the first two centuries of the
Christian era the Scripture teaching of the premillennial coming of Jesus was
universally held among Christians. But when the Christian ministry began to
lose the fullness [and personal indwelling] of the [Holy] Spirit, then their faith lost its
strength and discernment, and they
settled down on the plane of earthly politics and human philosophy, and as
the church got more formidable and worldly, the doctrine began to be propagated
that the Christian church was to conquer the nations of the world, and thus
bring the golden age of prophecy without the personal presence of Jesus on the
earth. And although the Protestant churches have thrown off the forms and many
of the grosser teachings of Romanism, yet a great many unscriptural
doctrines have sifted through from Romanism, and settled
down as a sediment in the teachings of Protestantism to a much greater extent
than Protestants themselves are aware of. One of these Romanist
notions is that of the church conquering the world. When we look into the
current views of modern worldly literature, we find a universal tendency to
ignore God as a personal creator and governor in His works. The commonality of
men are perhaps profoundly ignorant of the extent to which they ignore the
existence and personality of the God who made them. And this is true of all
classes of society, from the most polite to the most vulgar. The modern
newspapers, magazines, and works of science, philosophy, literature, art, and
history, [PAGE 57] are turned out by the thousand, and if every human being should suddenly
die, and some inhabitant of a distant world should come here and look into
these various literary productions, he would be astonished to find how utterly
the God of the universe had been ignored in them all. Men speak of “nature” and “natural law”
in a thousand ways without ever seeming to appreciate the thought of a living
and personal Creator. And if God is mentioned, He is simply the masculine form
of the neuter noun of nature. Now are we aware that a parallel sin is being committed, and has been for centuries committed by numberless multitudes in the visible church with
regard to the
As men drifted away from God all their
views became more and more impersonal, and they talked of principles [PAGE
58] and laws and
forces. Hence we find Christian Scientists, and Spiritualists, and
Free-thinkers ignoring a real personal Christ, but running off into a smoky
haze of mystified thought in which they harp on “the
Christ principle” and similar expressions of nonsense. But did we know
that the church has committed
this same blunder with regard to the kingdom of God on this earth, making it to consist of a universal spread
of impersonal teachings and a conglomerate mass of churchism, instead of the presence of the personal King Himself, upon whose shoulder the government is laid, and out from whose person the empire flows? Hence men have unwittingly put the
church in the place of the Lord Jesus, and there is a continual harping on
“working for the church,” “being sent out by the
church,” “being loyal to the church,” “raising money for the church,” “guarding the interests of the church,” being “consecrated to the church,” and “making great sacrifices for the church,” and all the while our adorable Jesus, Redeemer,
Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer, and coming King, is grieved to His heart to see how the nominal church has usurped
His place in the hearts of men, and has assumed His throne and attempted
to play the King in His stead. If in all of the fore-going
expressions the word “Jesus” were used instead of the word “church,” it would be according to
Scripture. This putting the word “church” where
the word “Christ” ought to be put is anti-Christ, for
anti-Christ does not consist in a
particular person, but in a vast multiplied system of the usurpation of the
place of Jesus, and while anti-Christ may head up in some particular office as
that of the Pope, yet it is spread out
as a ubiquitous thing throughout fallen Christianity.
We read in Ezekiel that when God rebuked the kings of
Judah for their idolatry, and prophesied their downfall, He says, “Remove the diadem and take
off the crown and be abased, for I will overturn, overturn, overturn it,
and it shall be no more until He comes whose right it
is, [PAGE 59] and I will give it to Him.” (Ezekiel 21.) Here is a prophecy of the coming of the Son of God to govern this world,
and the prophet does not say that “it”
shall come, that is, an impersonal system of church government, but,
emphatically till “He” shall come, the personal king.
It is in view of all these truths that the perfect believer is
to set his heart on seeing Jesus, and loving His personal appearing.
* *
*
[PAGE 60]
Chapter IX
“POWER OVER THE NATIONS”
Rev. 2: 26
AFTER TELLING US TO “hold fast till I
come,” Jesus
proceeds to give a special promise to the saints, in connection with His coming
and personal reign on earth, by saying, “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. As the vessels of the potter shall they be broken to shivers,
even as I received of my Father.” Here is a most emphatic promise, of the
rank and authority which those saints will have in Christ’s millennial kingdom, who by their overcoming faith, shall be counted
worthy of a place in His bridehood. This promise of the gift of
power, has more than one fulfilment. Like other Scriptures, it must not be limited to only one application. It has a fulfilment in the spiritual life, during the present [evil and apostate] age, and will have its complete
fulfilment in the coming [millennial] age. In the present life, when a believer by faith overcomes all the works of
Satan in his heart, he receives by the incoming of the Holy Spirit, a gift [PAGE
61] of power in the
moral world over those who are around him. And although this enduement of power
does not bring all the persons with whom he associates into subjection to
Jesus, yet, notwithstanding, they feel the force of a holy heart and life, and
as an individual unit he possesses his quota of power over the world. Many
suppose that this is the only fulfilment which these promises have, but that is
greatly to belittle the word of God. Those who do not believe in the
pre-millennial coming of Jesus suppose from this Scripture that the nations of
the world in their present state are to be subdued by the spiritual power in
the hearts of what few believers there are who have a baptism of the Holy
Ghost. But the Scriptures nowhere warrant this view. There is not a single text
in the entire Bible which teaches that the nations are to be converted and
saved in the present age or under the present order of things. The apostle
tells us in the Acts that God is now “calling out a
people for His name from among the Gentiles,” and St. James tells us that the [obedient
and Spirit-filled] believers in the present age, “are a kind of first fruits,” and we are told that the world, the
ungodly portion of mankind, live in the hands of the wicked one, and that the
wheat and the tares will grow together until the end of this age. The teaching
of the word of God is that Christ is not only saving as many in the present age
as He can, but that of [i.e., from amongst] these saved ones there is a
special company who give themselves up entirely to God, and serve Him without any
reservation, and who have in them
the martyr spirit and the full baptism of the Holy Ghost, and these are technically called in
Scripture “the elect,” “the overcomers,” “the bride of the Lamb,” “the church of the
first born,” or “the
hundred and forty-four thousand,” “those who are
called and [PAGE 62] chosen and faithful,” and these are the ones who are to be raised
in the first resurrection, or caught
away - [in a pre-Tribulation rapture (Luke 21: 34-36; Revelation 3: 10.)] - at the appearing of Christ in the
clouds of Heaven,
and glorified with Him, and sit with
him at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and then return with Him to this earth after the great
tribulations, and sit with Him in
His millennial kingdom, and be
appointed as prophets, and priests, and princes, over all the earth to subdue the nations and bring them into a state
of holiness, and, with Christ, rule over them a thousand years. There are scores of Scripture passages which can not possibly have any
rational and satisfactory explanation except in harmony with this statement. This promise of Jesus we are now
considering has no meaning except thus interpreted. We know most assuredly that
these words where the overcomers are to have power over the nations and rule
them with a rod of iron, have never yet been fulfilled. The ungodly have
governed this world from the fall of Adam, except for a few brief years after
the flood, when Noah and his family had charge of the depopulated earth. And we
also know that this Scripture can not be applied to the
Some have supposed that at the second coming of Jesus all the
unsaved nations are to be destroyed and burnt up, but if that were the case how
could God’s saints “rule over the nations and break down their power like the [PAGE
63] potter’s vessel.
There is no Scripture that teaches that the nations of the earth are to be
destroyed or killed at the appearing of Jesus. On the other hand, it is
abundantly taught that they will remain here and pass through the terrific
scourgings under the administration of the Ancient of Days.
In the parable of the ten virgins, those who have the oil,
that is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, will be taken away into the wedding banquet, and those who have lost
their grace, or have not the oil, are
left behind, but not destroyed.
Again Jesus presents three scenes in connection with His
coming in the clouds. A night scene, two shall be in bed together, the one
taken, the other left. A morning scene, two shall be grinding corn to prepare
the morning meal, the one taken, the other left. A midday scene, two shall be
in the field working together, the one taken, the other left. All these
Scriptures prove that when the elect are taken
up from the earth with Jesus in the clouds of heaven the people of the earth
will be left, to live on and pass through the
tribulations and propagate the human race, and when Jesus and His bride return from the wedding they will
find the nations still living on the earth. Of course those who are
taken away will be glorified like unto Christ, and Jesus says, they neither
marry nor are given in marriage, but will be equal to the angels, and they are
the ones who are to be His officers and sub-rulers in His millennial kingdom.
This is the exact teaching in the eighth
Psalm that, when
Christ reigns in all the earth, those persons who were perfectly humble, like
little babes, shall be ordained with strength, and have power to still the
enemy and the avenger. And further on in the Psalm that these saints were made for a
short while lower than the angels, but will be glorified and crowned with
glory, and honour, and have dominion over the works of God’s hands, over all [PAGE
64] sheep, and oxen,
and fowls of the air, and fish of the sea. That prophecy refers emphatically to Christs millennial kingdom and the reign of His saints over the earth.
The parallel of that Psalm is found in the second chapter of Hebrews. The apostle had stated in the
previous chapter the doctrine of the ministry of angels during the present age
over the heirs of salvation, but he says that the angels will
not have charge over the habitable earth which is to come, that is in the
coming age, but that these humble and holy men, who were made for a little while lower than
the angels, and who have been sanctified and made one with Jesus, are to be
crowned with glory and rulership in the coming age.
Compare Heb. 1: 14 with second chapter, verses 15 and 11. In the forty-fifth
Psalm we have a
marvellous portrait of Jesus as a king, and of the elect saints as His queen,
standing at His right hand, dressed in the gold of Ophir,
and in the close of the Psalm we are told that the members of this
queenhood are to be “sent forth as princes in all the earth.” That Scripture has never yet been fulfilled, except in a
very limited sense, of those apostles and evangelists who have gone through the
earth saving souls, but they have never been princes over all the earth, even
in that sense, but only over a few penitent and believing souls in a moral way.
We have a similar prophecy in Psalm 46, giving a description
of the desolation which God will make in the earth during the great
tribulations, and then He will make the wars to cease unto the end of the
earth, and break the bow, and cut the spear in sunder, and burn the chariot
with fire, and make the nations to be still, and to know that He is God, and
that He will be exalted among the heathen in the earth. That Scripture has
never yet been fulfilled, and the only time it can possibly be accomplished
will be when Christ and His glorified saints take charge of the world. In Psalm 47 we have another inspired [PAGE 65] picture of the Lord Jesus as being king over the
earth, and the psalmist says: “He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.” That Scripture has never yet been
fulfilled; on the other hand, the people have
kept the saints of God under, and
the nations have put their feet upon God’s holy ones. But the [millennial
(see 2 Pet.
3:
8.
& Rev.
20:
6.] day is coming, and that speedily,
when these words of the psalmist will be
literally and abundantly fulfilled.
In the thirty-second chapter of Isaiah we are told that “a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule
in judgment, and a man, that is a glorified man, shall be as a hiding place
from the wind, and a covert from the tempest,” which corresponds with
the teaching of Paul in the second of Hebrews that the glorified saints are to be
the custodians. and guardians, and protectors of the people who will be born in
the millennial age, just as angels are now our guardians and protectors. And to
show that this prophecy in Isaiah refers directly to Christ’s millennial
kingdom it is in connection with the prophecy in the previous chapter, and
“that day when men will cast away their idols of silver, and idols of gold, and
when the Lord shall lift His ensign in the earth, and put his fire in Zion, and
His furnace in Jerusalem.” We read in the seventh chapter of Daniel “that the saints of the most high
shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even forever and
ever.” And to prove that this refers to Christ’s coming reign, he says in the
same chapter that the kingdom shall be under the whole heaven, and shall be
given to the people of the saints of the most high whose kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. This prophecy
has certainly never yet been accomplished, and we notice that the reign of the
saints of the most high is put in this prophecy, as also in that of Isaiah, right in connection with the reign of Christ Himself, that is, the
glorified saints are to share the kingdom with Christ, and to be rulers under
Him.
[PAGE
66]
The word “horn” in Scripture always signifies
“government,”
dominion, and Daniel says in the same chapter:
“I
beheld, and the horn of the beast made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.” We know this Scripture has been
fulfilled for many centuries, and especially when the beast of Romanism
prevailed against the saints in the dark ages, and this prevailing of
the beastly horn against the saints still goes on [today], and Daniel says it will go on
until the Ancient of Days come and judgment is given to the saints of the Most
High, and the time comes that the
saints possess the kingdom. That prophecy of Daniel corresponds exactly with this promise in the
second of Revelation,
that Christ will give power to His overcoming saints over
all the nations of the earth to rule them with a rod of iron.
We read in Malachi that when the Lord shall come as a
blazing sun of righteousness, with healing in His wings, then those who love and fear Him
shall go forth as calves of the stall, and shall
tread down the wicked like ashes under the soles of their feet. In order to
get a more correct understanding as to who these are that shall go forth as
calves of the stall to tread down the wicked, they are described in the
previous chapter where it says: “They that feared the Lord spake often
one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard,
and a book of remembrance was written before Him,”
“and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my
jewels.” The word “jewels” in our common version is in the
original “my special treasures,” distinctly indicating the class of - [God’s selected regenerate] - believers entirely devoted to God. These are the saints that shall be
gathered out in the day of the Lord,
and the prophet goes on to say that these saints shall return, that is, come back with Jesus from the wedding
supper, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, that is, they
will be judges, with the gift of discerning the spirits and superintending and
controlling the nations that are [PAGE 67] still living on the earth. Jesus says in Matthew, 24th chapter, that those faithful [and obedient] servants who shall be found feeding the household of Christ with the meat
of a pure gospel at the time of His second coming shall be blessed; and Christ declares He will make such servants rulers over all His
goods. Jesus means exactly what He says, that such servants shall be His princes over the earth during His [millennial] reign.
Also in the 22nd. chapter of Luke, Jesus affirms
that those disciples who have continued with Him in His
temptations, not those who began and fell out by the way, and not those who
continue with Him in luxury and ease, with light work and large salaries, but those
who persistently cling to Him through
trouble, and sorrow, and loneliness, and temptation, and come off as overcomers, He says to such, “I will appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father has appointed unto me, that you may eat
and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel”.
What horrible work a great many church teachers take of this
Scripture, in trying to twist it into a Swedenborgian mystical meaning. The
infinite Christ does not trifle with His people, and means exactly what He
says, and just as infallibly as God the Father hath appointed a kingdom to His
Son, so as infallibly, Jesus will appoint His victorious followers, who serve Him with perfect loyalty, a kingdom, and give them thrones,
and principalities, over the nations of the earth. Here is a definite prophecy
that the twelve tribes of
The same truth is set forth in the 5th chapter of Revelation, where the “four living creatures,” who [presently] represent - [the
“holy”
R.V. and selected “souls”
of martyrs*] - glorified saints, sing a new song unto
Him who was slain, and hath redeemed them by His blood, and hath made them kings and priests, and concludes
by saying, “and [PAGE 68] they shall reign
on the earth.” This is an emphatic statement, that
the kingdom referred to is not in some distant world, but on this very earth
where they had been redeemed. Another proof text is found in Revelation twelve, where the man-child, which does not represent as some
suppose the Lord Jesus, but which signifies the indefatigable martyrs slain by the red dragon of the
Roman inquisition, and these martyrs, it is said, shall rule the nations with a
rod of iron; that is, they will form a part of the bridehood of the Lamb, and come back with Him to govern the world.
Another proof text is found in Revelation twenty, concerning those who are
counted worthy of a place in the first resurrection, where it is said,
“Blessed
and sanctified are they that have part in the first resurrection,
for they
shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign
with Him a thousand years.”
[* NOTE: These “four living creatures”
are presently in Heaven today amongst “the twenty and
four elders”! They are NOT the resurrected souls of the dead! They
are heavenly “creatures” living in God’s
presence with multitudes of holy ‘angels’ who “worship the Lamb”. This is biblical truth, which is
contrary to what multitudes of regenerate believers teach today! The
Resurrection of the “holy”
and martyred
dead are still held captive by “the gates of
Hades” (Matt. 16: 18b), until the time when He who has “the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev. 1: 19, R.V.) will return.
Revelation
20: 4b-6:-
“... and I saw
the souls of them that had beheaded
for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of
God, and such as worshipped not the beast,
neither his image, and
received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; they lived, and reigned with Christ” - [upon this earth] “a thousand years.
5 The rest of the dead lived NOT” - [for untold multitudes must remain amongst the dead in ‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’! See (Num. 16: 30; 1 Sam. 28: 11, 14-19b.ff.
Cf.
Luke 16: 23;
20:
35; Phil. 3: 11; 2 Tim.
2: 16-18; Rev. 20: 11-15, R.V.] - “until the thousand
years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he
that hath part in the first resurrection; over these
the second death hath no power; but they SHALL be priests of God and of
Christ, and SHALL reign with him a
thousand years.”]
These Scriptures are all clear, specific, and unanimous, and there are scores of other passages that
could be cited to prove the same truth. The significance of the expression,
“to
rule the nations with a rod of iron,” will be considered in a future
chapter, when we come to the setting up of the theocratic throne of our Saviour
in
* *
*
[PAGE 69]
CHAPTER X
“THE MORNING STAR”
Rev. 2: 28
ANOTHER STEP IN THE QUALIFICATIONS for reigning with Christ in His
coming kingdom, is that of having “the morning star.” All the metaphors of the Bible are
used with infallible precision, and we can learn the mind of God by studying
them. When Jesus is compared to a blazing sun, it always refers to His visible,
personal appearance, the open manifestation of His Majesty, either in heaven to
angels and glorified saints, or else to His incarnate history while on the
earth, or else to His “parousia;” that is, His personal appearing in the clouds of heaven.
But when Jesus is compared to a “star,” it refers to the interior and
spiritual manifestation of Himself by the Holy Spirit in the mind of a perfect
believer. It will greatly aid us in understanding many prophecies of Scripture,
and also in our experiences, to keep these metaphors clear in our thought.
Jesus as a “star” enters into our
hearts, and unveils Himself to us privately and personally. Jesus as a “sun”
comes to us outwardly and visibly, manifesting [PAGE 70] Himself to the world-at-large, the
collective mass of His children. Hence when Jesus, as the divine Bridegroom, comes to collect the great body of His
saints to Himself, He will come as a blazing Sun, eclipsing all other creatures
in heaven and earth, and filling the spaces of the sky with His dazzling
brightness. But before that glorious event, He reveals Himself to the eye of
pure faith, as the individual Bridegroom of the heart, as a sweet, brilliant
morning star, coming to us in the night of our present life, and by the Holy
Spirit, unveiling Himself in a private, personal, and transcendent manner, as
the one altogether lovely.
There is a logical connection in the promise between the gift
of power and the gift of the morning star. The gift of power over the nations
has a preliminary and spiritual fulfilment in the baptism of the Holy Ghost on
the perfect believer, and it is by this baptism of the Spirit that Christ is
revealed in the heart, in the glory of His divine and personal character. In
the 14th chapter of John, where Christ promises to give the
abiding Comforter, He adds to the promise, “In that day ye shall know that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me,” that is, that under the illumination
of the indwelling Comforter there will be revealed to our inner consciousness
the perfect divinity of our Lord Jesus, and of His unity with the Father. Hence
in this promise, which we are now considering in this second chapter of Revelation, after promising to the overcoming
saint power over the nations, He adds the other promise of giving to the overcomer the morning star.
In tracing out some further thoughts on this subject let us
notice:
1. That the
morning star is revealed in the night. Hence it refers to Christ being manifest
during what has been appropriately called “the night
of faith.” It is in accord with this Scripture that the personal visible
presence of [PAGE 71] Christ in the world is always denominated “the day,” while His absence from the earth is
called night. When Jesus was on the earth He said: “Yet a little
while is the light with you. While ye have the
light walk in it, lest darkness come upon you.” Again He said, “I am the
light of the world.” The apostle says, “The night is far spent, the
day is at hand,” meaning
by “night” the absence of Jesus from the earth, and meaning by “the day is at
hand” the near
approach of our Lord’s personal coming. Again He says, “Exhort one
another daily, and so much the more as ye see
the day approaching,” meaning by the approaching day the return of Christ to fill this world
with His glory and kingdom. The psalmist tells us that “the upright
shall have dominion over the wicked in the morning,” meaning by the word “morning” the beginning of Christ’s reign on
this earth. The words can have no other significance, for it cannot apply to
the third heavens, as there are no wicked people there. It can not refer to
hell, for there are no upright persons there, and it can not
refer to the present order of things, for wicked men
now rule this world, and there can
be no period for the fulfilment of this prophecy, except in that bright morning of the millennial age, when Jesus and His saints shall possess
the kingdom. Persons who speak in a
lofty strain of the light of Christian civilization as being the noonday of
Bible truth, while the world
everywhere is mantled in spiritual darkness, and the muddy waters of worldliness are inundating the visible
churches, and while sinners are
multiplying ten times faster than the saints are, can have no real conception of what God means by the word “day.” They speak after the manner of men,
and mistake the twilight of civilization for the glorious day of spiritual
light.
While a small number
of holy saints are being internally
illuminated by the morning star revealed in their hearts, the world at large,
even the most cultured of those [PAGE 72] who have not the baptism of the Spirit, are walking at
best in the pale moonlight reflected from true believers, but still they are
plodding along in the night, dreaming it is meridian day. When God uses the
word day, He measures it by His own thought of what day is, and not by the groping conceptions of carnal
minds. Hence the Word of God speaks over and over again of “the day of
Christ,” and “the day of
God,” and of “that day,” as if all the light that men now have
was midnight in comparison.
1. The morning
star will bear some comparison with the other stars in the sky, though it
outshines them all. But when the sun rises, there is no comparison between it
and the other luminaries in the heavens, for all other celestial and
terrestrial lights are pale behind its splendour. In like manner, during the
night of faith, Jesus is revealed to the pure in heart, in His spotless
humanity, as the brightest and most attractive of all beings in the universe.
Even if we consider His blessed humanity apart from the divinity of the Eternal
Word, still there is a beauty and lustre in that human nature surpassing all
the starry hosts of angels and saints, for the Holy Spirit not only reveals His
absolute divinity, but also the incomparable beauty and loveliness of His
humanity. Every saint of God is a real form of heavenly beauty, which far
surpasses the most beautiful objects in material creation, and when we turn our
thoughts upon that bright land of angelic and glorified spirits, could we see
them in all their multiplied variety and their individual graces and charms, it
would doubtless dazzle our understanding; but were we able to survey all those
myriads of legions and comprehend their graces and beauties in one collective
mass of glory, the whole scene of exquisite loveliness, multiplied millions of
times, would not equal the ineffable beauty and glory of the crucified and
glorified humanity of Jesus. It has pleased the Father that in that humanity all the fullness of God should abide.
[PAGE 73]
This inward revelation of Jesus as the morning star is
referred to by St. Peter in his second epistle, where he refers particularly to
the second coming of Christ as typified by the transfiguration, and says that
when he was with Christ in the Holy Mount he there “saw the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and then goes on to say that “we are to take heed to that word of prophecy, which is like a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day shall
dawn and the Day Star arises in our hearts.” The “day dawn” is the work of regeneration, and the “Day Star
arising in our hearts” is the work of the sanctifying Spirit cleansing away our natural darkness
and revealing Jesus as a perfect Saviour within us.
When Jesus is spoken of as coming in the clouds of heaven, He
is then compared to a blazing Sun. Malachi prophecies of that event by saying: “Unto you that
fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in his wings, and
ye shall tread down the wicked as ashes under your feet.” And John declares that “Jesus will
come in the clouds of heaven, and every eye
shall see Him, and all kindreds shall wail
because of Him.”
Now we must remember that no one will be prepared to meet Jesus as a blazing
Sun coming in the clouds of heaven unless he has previously been purified by
His precious blood and had Christ revealed within him as the Morning Star. Thus
as the morning star, on the brow of the approaching day, indicates the rising
of the sun, so the revelation of Jesus, as a perfect personal Saviour within
the heart, gives us prophetic intimations of His coming as a glorious king, and
prepares us for that transcendent event. Through all the Christian generations,
when believers have reached the degree of grace which admits them into the
number of the bridehood of the Lamb, they have had this gift of the Morning
Star, this fascination for the face of Jesus, which is the Holy Ghost
photograph of the divine Bridegroom, which He sends on ahead of His appearing, and hangs it up in the hearts of those who
are to sit with Him at the marriage supper, and share His royal prerogatives in
His coming empire.
In reading the biography of holy persons we are struck with
the fact that when they have reached a certain [PAGE 75] degree in grace they have had this
inward spiritual vision of Jesus and wonderful premonitions of His second
coming. As a sample of what thousands of saints have felt in days past, I will
quote a beautiful instance from the writings of the saintly Faber: “Before the dawn of day a huge rolling mass of unwieldly
cloud came up from the western horizon. With incredible swiftness, and the loud
roaring of sudden wind, it covered like a pall the brilliant moonlit heavens
and deluged the earth with slanting columns of whirling rain. It passed on. A
star came out, and then another, and at last the moon, and then the storm drove
onward to the east, towards the sea; and all at once a lunar rainbow spanned
the black arch of heaven, and it seemed as if Jesus should have come beneath
that bow and through that purple cloud that was barring the gates of the
sunrise. And what is all this but a figure of our lives, of which we might make
so much?”
There is a class of religionists who make a specialty of the
second advent, but whose teachings are largely materialistic, denying the immortality of the soul and the divine personality and
sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and other Scriptural truths. If
Christ should appear, such persons would be utterly unprepared to meet Him.
Unless we have within us the Morning Star we are in no condition to meet the
blazing Sun. The Scriptures nowhere teach that the moment of Christ’s appearing
will be a moment for the purifying of our nature, or for the filling of us with
the Spirit, but it will be a moment for catching away those
who are already made pure in heart and filled with the oil, and who have in them Christ abiding as the Morning Star.
This is definitely referred to in the language of the elect
woman, in the Song of Solomon, where she says, “My beloved is mine and I am
His. He feedeth among the lillies until the day break
and the shadows flee away. Turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young
hart upon [PAGE
77] the Mountains of Bether,” or, as it should be rendered, “Upon the Mountains of Separation.” In this passage there is indicated a
blessed, deep union between Christ and His elect, and the invisible Jesus is
represented as coming down in the Spirit, in the humble valleys of earth, and
feeding Himself upon the love of His own saints, who are compared to lilies,
and this communion will go on until the daybreak of His second coming and the
shadows of this present age have flown away before that rising Sun. And the loving
believer is pleading for the Bridegroom to hasten His coming over the mountains
that separate between this wicked age and the golden age of His millennial
reign.
There are doubtless many prophetic events and acts in the life
of our Saviour when on this earth, which we have never yet discovered or
appreciated. The smallest things in the incarnation and life of Jesus have a
transcendent [sic] and far-reaching
meaning which surpasses all our thought. Among them we may notice that for
several months the Eternal Son of God enshrouded Himself with His earthly
mother before coming forth in visible manifestation to reveal the Father to the
human race, and to make an atonement for the sins of men. During those
mysterious months of the incarnate Word of God no one can tell the thoughts and
feelings of the humble Mary, how her thoughts turned almost every moment to her
incarnate Lord, and how she lovingly and wistfully pined for the hour to come
when she might look upon that most lovely face in all the creation of God, that
face which should show forth more of the glory of the three persons of the
Godhead than all the faces of angels or men combined, and how she yearned to
kiss those lips that should speak the doom of all mankind. Even as an unborn
Infant, He had power to sanctify John the Baptist, and to fill him with the
Holy Ghost before his birth, and to fill his mother, Elizabeth, with the Holy
Spirit. (Luke, 1st [PAGE 77] chapter, 39, 45.) Is not all this a divine parable of what
is now taking place? Christ is to be now formed within our hearts, the hope of
glory to live within us in His personal, forgiving, cleansing, and comforting
presence, just as really as His humanity lived in His earthly mother, and, like
Mary, the more we comprehend this blessed indwellng
of Christ in our hearts, the more we are filled with premonitory leapings of
soul in anticipation of the hour, when we, too, shall see that face that she
longed to see. As the hour of His coming draws near, His true, anointed ones in
all the earth will feel more intensely growing within them this prophetic
feeling of seeing Him in glory.
* *
*
[PAGE 78]
Chapter XI
“WHITE RAIMENT”
Rev. 3: 5
AS WE COME
to consider the next step which is set forth in the promise of the fifth overcometh,
we find the manifestation of the Christ-life taking on a still further
development in that of a perfect testimony. “He that overcometh the same shall be
clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot
out his name out of the book of life, but I will
confess his name before my Father, and before
His angels.” These
words cover the entire range of Christian testimony, and also the counterpart
of our testimony on earth, which is Christ;s
testimony for us in heaven. This promise of being clothed in white raiment
expresses the full confession both by lip and outward life of the work of grace
in the heart. The white stone is pre-eminently expressive of a pure heart, the
hidden work of God within the soul, but the white raiment is expressive of
outward manifestations of that inward whiteness in the words, manners, and all
the features of outward life. We may gather from this promise the following
points:
[PAGE
79]
1. God has so constructed all living
things that they will tell on themselves. What is in the heart of any creature will inevitably come to
the surface and make itself known. Life in itself is always hidden, and can
never be discerned by the microscope. But life of every kind has in it a
quality of revelation so that everything will sooner or later bear outward
testimony of its inward nature. And this outward expression of the inward life
takes on the form of a garment. The inward life of a fish will manifest itself
in outward fins and scales, and makes up the garniture of its peculiar organic
life. The hidden life in the blood of a bird will confess itself in the plumage
of the bird, and this outward plumage in colour and texture is an infallible
confession of the species of life within. The secret life of a tree, which lies
in its sap, could not be distinguished under a microscope as to its genus or
species, but let that sap come forth in bud, and bloom, and foliage, and at
once the secret of its inner nature is made known. Man might take a swine and
shave him clean, and cover him with white wool, but just as long as the swine
blood lives in its heart it will grow bristles.
This great fact of creation is manifested everywhere, that “the blood
will tell” - the
inward life will clothe itself outwardly in an exact and corresponding raiment.
This is as infallibly true of the soul as of any other form of life. It is
eternally impossible for the secret life of the immortal soul to remain long
concealed, and the outflow of that life, in words, and tempers, and tones, and
gestures, and business transactions, will sooner or later be an exact
manifestation of the secret fountains of the hidden life. It is God Himself who
has established these unchanging laws, and they are but the outworking of His
absolute equity and justice and love. Hence He says that the overcoming
believer, who has the white stone of a pure heart and the Morning Star of an
indwelling Christ, will have the outward clothing of a humble, pure, gentle,
discreet, [PAGE 80] bold, and heavenly life, which is the spotless garniture growing
out from interior whiteness, with as absolute precision as a lamb’s heart with
its lamb’s blood will clothe itself with lamb’s wool. This white raiment will
take on more intense forms of brightness, and sweetness, and outward glow in
life, according to the intensity of the pure love in the heart. We are told
that “God covers Himself with light as with a garment.” From which we learn that the
manifestation of the Godhead to glorified spirits is that of the infinite ocean
of inexpressible fire, a flame of light so excessively bright that Paul says no
man can approach unto it - that is, no man in this mortal state could endure
the sight. It would seem that God wants to raise us into fellowship with
Himself, and so fill us that we also shall be clothed in a white fire.
We read of the living creatures in Ezekiel that they were like lightning, and
that fire flashed out from them. We read of angels appearing to prophets as
young men, clothed in white raiment of dazzling brightness. We also read of
Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, letting the inward glory shine out
through His raiment, making it of dazzling whiteness, and also of Christ being
revealed to His prophets as clothed in white raiment, with His eyes like
lightning, His face like the sun, and His feet like glowing brass in a furnace.
The glorified saints are to be made like unto their Lord, so that in the future
age they will be as radiant living flames.
If all this be true, then even in this life there must be a
beginning of all these things, and so it comes to pass that the perfect
believer can be filled with the love of God, like a glowing furnace, and have
his inner spirit clothed with the Holy Ghost like a shining mantle. Hence there
are times when under this spiritual investure of white fire the face will
shine, the eye will flash, the voice have a mellow, penetrating sweetness, and
the manners melt into such lowliness and grace [PAGE 81] as to almost make the white robe of
the inward soul visible to the eye.
2. “I will not
blot out his name out of the book of life.” This indicates clearly that it is possible, at least up to a certain point
in Christian progress, for a [regenerate] believer to apostatize and
have his name stricken from the book of life. Why should God use words that have no meaning, and if
it were impossible for real believers to have their names blotted out, why
should God say so? No human theology in this world expresses the whole of any
Bible truth. The doctrines of Calvinism and Arminianism equally fail to express
the whole truth. While the Scriptures teach most positively what is commonly
called the final perseverance of the saints, it at the same time teaches just as positively that real, genuine
believers whose names were in the book of life have apostatized and gone into
outer darkness. It is not for us to formulate God’s infinite Bible into an
inflexible creed. In the thirty-third chapter of Ezekiel, God emphatically declares that the righteous man who is really righteous
may turn away from his righteousness and commit iniquity, and die in that
state, and that then all his righteousness shall not be mentioned. And that a
wicked man may turn away from his wickedness and become righteous, and if he
lives in that state his sins shall never be mentioned unto him. And the Apostle
Peter tells us it were better for a man not to have known the way of
righteousness than, after he has known it, to turn from the holy commandment,
or as it should be rendered, to turn from the commandment to be holy.
So there is a point in
grace from which man may apostatize, and then we are taught in the verse
now under consideration that there is a point in grace which fixes the destiny
of the soul eternally [aionio ly, i.e. age-lasting ly] for glory. And Christ affirms that
when the believer reaches that point in spiritual progress, indicated in this
fifth overcometh, that his name will never be blotted out from the book of
life.
[PAGE 82]
3. Jesus says: “I will confess his name
before my Father and before His angels.” So there are two testimonies transpiring - one on earth, a
testimony for Jesus, and one in heaven, a testimony for the [regenerate] believer. As the believer by the outward
expression in his words and manners, and prayers and definite confessions of
saving grace makes known to mankind the indwelling of Christ in his heart, so
Jesus, at the right hand of God the Father, is making known in the heavenly
world, the fidelity and labour and true character of the believer on earth.
This shows us the intimate relationship between the
Spiritualism is Satan’s counterfeit of these blessed and
intimate relationships; and because of Satan’s counterfeit, many timid and
partially, or very weakly, illumined Christians, dare not grasp with their
faith all the fullness of Bible statements on this subject. But Paul positively
affirms in Hebrews, that the soul which has found its
Pentecost in the Holy Spirit, has already come, even before the death of the
body, into fellowship with the heavenly Jerusalem, and with an innumerable
company of angels, and with the church of the first born, and with the judge of
all men, and with the spirits of just men made perfect. If believers could see
these things in
true light, and apprehend Christ confessing them before the Father, how they
would throw aside all their timidity, and backwardness, and half-cowardice, in
confessing the cleansing blood, and come out in a life of great liberty and
fullness in the Holy Ghost.
This verse has a parallel in the third
chapter of Malachi, where we are told that, then those who feared the Lord spake often one to
another; that is, confessed Christ fully and in sincerity, that the Lord
hearkened, and heard their confessions, and a book of remembrance was written
before Him, and the inference is plain, that in this book of remembrance, the
confessions and obedience of His faithful children were recorded therein. The
Bible tells of two books kept in heaven - one is the “book of life,” and the other “the book of
remembrance.” The
book of life simply contains the registry of the names of those who are saved,
without reference to their degree and fervour of service; but the book of
remembrance is a registry of all good
works, and all the saints will be rewarded
according to - [their works and] - the records in this book of
remembrance. We must never confound simple - [and eternal] - salvation itself with rewards, for we are told that many will
be saved so as by fire, and their
manifold works being erroneous, or
only temporal, will be consumed by the fire, but that others [i.e., the overcomers] - who are saved will have great
rewards. We understand that this confession of the names of the saints,
which Jesus makes before the Father and His angels, involves something more than simple salvation
from eternal death, it embraces a confession of
their trials, the testings of their faith, their peculiar sufferings, - [for Christ’s sake] - their exhibitions of perfect loyalty, and their manifold labours, so that when Jesus comes to reward His holy ones, those rewards will be measured out with absolute
equity, and infinitesimal propriety, which will be apparent to all the angels
and the heavenly hosts. The rewards of those persons comprising the bridehood
of Christ will be given at the marriage
supper of the Lamb, which we shall consider in the succeeding chapter.
* *
*
[PAGE 84]
Chapter XII
“A PILLAR IN THE
Rev. 3: 12
TO THE BELIEVER who advances as far in his spiritual progress as the sixth
overcometh, Jesus promises, “I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God,
and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the City of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which
cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I
will write upon him My new name.” Just before making this promise, in His address to the same
church, He says, “Behold, I come quickly.
Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” This announcement that He will come
quickly is made to the church at
The Scriptures reveal to us in many places that God is forming a veritable and living temple composed of regenerated
and sanctified souls throughout the centuries, which are
denominated real “living stones,” and that the Holy Ghost is
building these purified natures up into a real living city or temple, and that every soul entering that
structure has its appropriate place with as much accuracy and reality as the
stones of a real palace which have
been previously carved and fashioned in the quarry for their several
places in the building.* Paul expressly says that true believers
are God’s building, they are His temple. Peter says that we are to taste that
the Lord is gracious, and that as living stones we are built up a spiritual
house, a holy priesthood, which indicates that the house is a real living
temple.
[* See Psalm 139: 15, 16. The writer’s words “fashioned in the quarry” is a reference to the
disembodied souls of the dead in ‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’ - waiting for the time of their Resurrection!
Robert Govett’s exposition of these verses is a scriptural classic:-
“My frame was not hidden from thee,
when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth:”
(Psalm 139:
15.)
“It is the sojourn of the saints in
Hades ... which speaks of a body being
curiously fashioned in ‘The lowest parts of the
earth.’ Now, the saints that are to form that
body of Christ, Eph. 4: 12, 16;
It is Christ
who speaks - “My frame was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see mine unperfect substance, And in Thy book were all my
members written, which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there were none
of them,” verses 15, 16. ...
In this respect, the building of the real
At the bottom of the
sea myriads of little coral insects [PAGE 86] begin to build themselves up unitedly
in the coral reef. For long centuries
the structure goes on increasing, but
all hidden beneath the dark, green waters of the sea. At last the coral
reef rises above the surface of the sea, and becomes visible to the eye, and
soon it is covered with gorgeous foliage and tropical products. In like manner, through all the centuries
past, and hidden away from physical eyesight, and the reason of carnal men, God has been working upon a marvellous
structure, building for Himself a
gorgeous temple, in which every
stone is an immortal spirit,
regenerated and purified, and - [if obedient, (see Acts 5: 32; cf. 1
John 3: 24, R.V.)] - filled [and indwelt] with His own Spirit. This structure has not yet become
visible, except perchance to the
penetrating vision of angels and glorified spirits. But when Jesus appears and
establishes His reign on the earth, this magnificent structure of myriads of immortal blood-washed souls
will emerge from the dark waters of time, and become a visible, clearly
cognizable structure in the eyes of angels and men. This is the city that Abraham saw in a vision, and that glittered down the long vista of faith to prophets and
apostles.
The building of the temple by King Solomon, in which every stone was
carefully finished in the quarry,
and, when brought together, could be deftly joined together* without the
sound of a hammer, is an inspired
type of the spiritual temple that is now being constructed by the Holy Spirit
as a habitation for God. Now to be
admitted as a pillar in that temple is a mark of great favour and honor from God.
It is evident that all believers who enter into that glorious structure
will not rank as pillars, for
it would be out of keeping with all proper interpretation to suppose that every
piece in the temple would be a pillar. And
we notice that this promise was not given in the earliest stages of the
overcoming life, but reserved for
the last stage previous to sitting with Christ in His throne. There are thousands of degrees of grace
among God’s [redeemed] children. Having
the heart purged from indwelling sin is the lowest [PAGE 87] stage of Christian perfection, and, after it, there is to come
a great work of illumination in the understanding, and the revelation of
spiritual things, and the
manifesting of the three persons in the Godhead to the eye of the mind. And then there come, in the upper
ranges of a life in the Holy Spirit, deep and interior experiences of divine unionf where the faculties of the human spirit are brought
into marvellous and unspeakable unity with God, where the understanding becomes
enlarged and united to God's revealed word, where the affections are
inexpressibly expanded and united to the sympathies and feelings of the Lord
Jesus, and where the will, in all its choices and desires, is brought into a
supernatural fixedness with the will of God, and with the movements of divine
providence. These forms of the spiritual life are what we may understand by
being so taken up into God as to be made a pillar in His coming kingdom.
[* See Luke 16: 22-31, R.V.]
In our further observations of this remarkable promise we
notice:
1.That there is a
state of Christian life set forth in the
Bible, which fixes the believer’s destiny forever. When it pleases God to take
one of His servants and make him a pillar in the temple, Christ then affirms, “He shall go no more out.” We are to take these words to mean just what they say. We
have seen, in previous steps, that there are points in grace, from which the
soul may retrograde, and be lost forever; but the Scriptures just as clearly
teach, that there is a point in divine life where the believer’s glorious
destiny is forever settled. The same law
applies to sinners as to saints.
We are expressly taught by our Saviour, that there were sinners to whom He
spoke, who had gone so far in a life of disobedience that they had fixed their
eternal* destiny for hell. They saw Him casting
out devils, and, right against all the light of reason, common sense, and
conscience, they charged Him with being possessed with Beelzebub. Jesus told
them that that was the [PAGE 88] blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, that is, calling the
work of the Holy Ghost the work of the devil, and doing it right against light.
He then told them that that sin should never
be forgiven either in this
age or in the coming age, but that they should die in their sins,
and where Christ was they could never come. This is an infallible declaration,
that men may now put themselves where they
never can or never will repent, and while walking upon the surface of this
world, they are in reality a living
portion of everlasting hell.
[* NOTE: In relation
to the statement: “the same law applies to sinners and
to saints”; and the words in the following sentence, “they had fixed their eternal destiny for Hell” are misleading! This is because the writer has used
the Greek word aionios, translated “eternal” to
describe the destiny of both unregenerate sinners and regenerate saints! See,
in John 3:
16
and Hebrews
5: 9
how the same Greek adjective ‘aionios’ can be translated to mean
two entirely different periods of time! Either age-lasting or for ‘the ages of the
ages’ (eternal).]
It is probable that the great majority of men now living on
earth have passed this awful point of destiny, and that their eternal doom is
just as really fixed as it will be at the judgment. Now what is true with
regard to sinners is equally true
reversely with regard to saints,* that
there is a point in Christian progress which absolutely fixes the believers
destiny for glory, and honour, and immortality in heaven.
[* See note above.]
2. Jesus says that “I will write
upon this pillar the name of my God.” In the temples built for ancient kings in
It is the Father who awakens us and leads us to His son Jesus,
and then Jesus saves us, and leads us to the [PAGE 89] sanctifying baptism and indwelling
personality of the Holy Spirit, and then the Holy Spirit leads us back to the
Father, and gives us such a revelation of the person of the Father as the
eternal fountain of all Godhead, as eternal and unchanging love, He gives us a
view of His divine paternity in a far brighter and sweeter light than we ever
knew in the earlier stages of initial grace. The highest stages in the
Christ-life repeat over again what we learned in the early beginning, but in a
much deeper and more luminous manner. What we need is to have the Fatherhood of
God so engraved upon the vital centre of our being that we will continually
have an abiding sense of Him as the person of the Father.
3. “I will write upon him the name of the City of my God, which is New Jerusalem.” This is a remarkable promise, and refers to that special
revelation which the Holy Spirit makes to the perfect believer of his being
made a member of the bridehood
of Jesus. To have the name of the New Jerusalem engraved in the life of the
soul is to receive an inward experimental certificate from the Holy Ghost of
being the “spouse” of the Lord Jesus. Young, or
un-established, Christians never receive this experience, and when they hear
perfected believers speaking of that spiritual wedlock of their souls with
Jesus, or talking in the style of the language of the Song of Solomon, they do not
understand the real purport of such language. I have met many thousands of
Christians, in all stages of experience, and I never remember of hearing any
one speak in a serious and experimental manner of the subject of divine espousal, except those who had
consciously and fully entered the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is why the Song of Solomon is so little understood and so blunderingly interpreted by
many. That Song expresses the high watermark of the spiritual life. And it has
language and metaphors so flooded with supernatural experiences of personal
affection for Jesus, and [PAGE 90] yearnings after Him, which are all dry or gross
hieroglyphics to believers who have not yet entered the sanctified bridehood of the Lamb.
Our Saviour gives us to understand in the ninth chapter of Matthew that there are some disciples who
have not yet come into the bridehood, and there are others who have. The
disciples of John said to Him: “Why do we fast often, but Thy disciples fast not?” Jesus said unto them: “How can the
children of the bridechamber mourn as
long as the bridegroom is with them?” Now the disciples of John were really the servants of
God, but were serving Him in a legal way, but those disciples who had left John,
and followed Jesus, had been lifted into the plane of a love service, and Jesus
calls them “the
children of the bridechamber,” and says that His presence with them was that
of the bridegroom.
This truth has a continual and
far-reaching application through all the Christian centuries. There have ever been those who serve God
really and truly, without
entering that state of perfect heart-union with Jesus which the Bible frankly
expresses under the type of marriage.
So when Jesus promises to write the name of the City of
4. “I will
write upon him my new name.” This new name is explained by the prophet Hosea, in which he
describes the glory of God that shall fill the earth in the last days, and
says: “It shall be at that time, saith the Lord, thou shalt no
more call me baali,” which
signifies my master, “but thou shalt call me Ishi,” which signifies my husband. This is the
new name that Jesus will write into those who are filled with holy love.
This writing consists of a pungent and sweet revelation to the soul of Christ’s
personal and individual love. In the lower degrees of grace we look upon the
love of Jesus as of a general and universal character. But as we advance into
closer union with Him, His love takes on clear forms of a special and personal
character, and when we are perfectly crucified, and can say with St. Paul: “the life I
live is not my own, but the life of Christ in me,” then with Paul we can also say: “The Son of God loved
me and gave Himself for me,”
and this revelation of the personal affection Jesus bears for each of us
makes Him more inexpressibly dear to us than all the outspread glories of Him
in the general creation.
The word Lamb, as used in Revelation, is pre-eminently the name of Jesus
as the heavenly bridegroom, and this word Lamb in every instance in Revelation is in the Greek “arnion,” which means a little, tender lamb. And
so the last and highest revelation we have of Jesus is that of inexpressible
gentleness and love. This is the name and the character which He will engrave
in the consciousness of those who are perfectly established in union with
Himself.
*
* *
[PAGE
92]
Chapter XIII
“I WILL SUP WITH HIM”
Rev. 3: 20
JUST BEFORE MAKING the promise in connection with the seventh overcometh, Jesus
gives two preliminary promises which set forth His fellowship with us in the
present state and our fellowship with Him at His heavenly banquet. Jesus is now
visiting the churches on earth in this wide-spread revival of Christian
holiness, and by this revival He is knocking at the door of all [inside] the
churches and saying, that “if any man will open the door to Him, He will come
in and sup with him.” This sets forth that fellowship which Christ has with His disciples in
their present state in the flesh that He comes down in the person of the Holy
Spirit, and identifies Himself in all the affairs of life with the conditions and experiences of His followers.
If in walking through a field we pierce our foot with a thorn,
instantly the nervous system, which is a perfect telegraphic arrangement, will
notify the brain of the wound in the foot. If the brain were not thus notified,
there would be no consciousness of pain in the foot. It [PAGE
93] seems that the
suffering is in that part of the body pierced by the thorn, but in reality the
suffering is in the brain, which is the centre of the entire nervous system,
and the centre of all sensation. Instantly on receiving the dispatch from the
afflicted member of the body, the brain comes down as it were into the foot,
and enters into perfect sympathy with that member. The Holy Spirit has told us
that Christ is the Head, and that His disciples, who are united to Him in the
Holy Ghost, constitute His mystical body, and that if any member of that body
is in a suffering condition, the head shares all the phenomena of pain or
pleasure, which any member of the body may undergo. Hence we are told that in
all our afflictions Jesus is afflicted.
When Saul of Tarsus was galloping to
The Holy Spirit is in the divine realm what our nervous system
is in our bodies, and with infinitely more accuracy and certainty than our
nerves can transmit a sensation from our extremities to the brain, the Holy
Spirit, as the divine nerve, transmits every variety and every degree of sensation
in the believer to His divine Head, the blessed Jesus. This is the purport of
the promise, “I will sup with him.” To sup with a person means to share with them what
they may have, whether good or bad, joyful or sorrowful; the poor crust and a
cup of water, or the feast of fat things. Hence Christ supping with us not only
implies His inevitable and personal participation and consciousness with all
our temptations, and tears, and struggles, but also that He just as consciously
and as directly participates in all our joys. He is happy in our happiness, and
smiles with our smiles, and has a pleasure in every pure and innocent joy of
His children, and rejoices in His spirit at every step they take in Christian
progress. When on the earth He affirmed that He rejoiced in spirit at the
downfall of Satan, but if that was a source of joy to His immaculate heart, how
much more so does He rejoice in our new birth, and our sanctification, and
every act of our loving obedience and trust to Him?
This participation of Jesus of the love of His disciples is
set forth in the Song of Solomon in these words, “My beloved is
mine, and I am his. He feedeth among the lilies.” Several times the expression is used
that Christ feeds among the lilies, and goes down into His garden to smell the
fragrant blossoms and the spices. The lily is a Scripture type of a purified
believer, whose white, clean heart gives forth in its love, and faith, and
hope, and obedience, and heavenly aspirations, those sweet perfumes which are
more fragrant to Jesus than all the odours of spicy
Love always feeds upon love, and the heart of love has a
mystical way of feeding itself just as truly as the body has of taking
nourishment. When a mother sits by her sleeping babe, engaged in her daily
work, and ever and anon fixes her soft, maternal gaze upon her little darling,
could we see the interior mechanism of her soul, thoughts, and affections, we
would discover that her loving heart was feeding on that babe in a mystical way
just as really as the fish feed on the sea, or as the mind feeds on books, or
as the body feeds on bread. In like manner Jesus bends over those who love Him
with a perfect heart. He enjoys their prayers, their songs, their testimonies,
their unselfish and loving efforts to promote His glory. Every loyal thought
that we have toward Him, every desire we have to see Him, and to serve Him,
every sacrifice we make to extend His salvation among men, is a little banquet
to His infinite heart. And all this is transpiring, and so few of us ever take
into our thoughtful appreciation even a small tithe of His personal, profound,
and perpetual interest in us. Could we see all this as we shall see it some
day, how it would invigorate our love, and fortify our zeal, and relieve our
loneliness, and make our very hearts flutter with a bewildering sense of His
dear presence in us and with us every moment of our lives. O, why is it that we
do not believe Him more, and then surely we would love Him more. If we in
reality perfectly apprehend the truth of His words, “Lo I am with
you all the days, even to the end of the age,”
how that living faith
would transform our inner and outer lives, and beget within us that habit of
recollection and of practicing the presence of God, which would throw the very luster of heaven upon our spirit and our behaviour. And yet
He is true to His own word, and [PAGE 96] whether we fully apprehend it or not. He does sup with
us if we sincerely throw the door of our hearts open to Him for His unreserved
possession.
* *
*
[PAGE
97]
Chapter XIV
“HE WILL SUP WITH ME”
Rev.
3:
20
JUST AS TRULY as Jesus comes down in spirit to sup with those who fully admit Him into
their hearts, so they will be taken up at His second coming, and sup with Him
in that banquet, of which He has told us in His parables and through the lips
of His apostles. The special promise connected with the seventh overcometh is
that of sitting with Jesus in His millennial throne; but before that throne is
actually set up on this earth there must intervene that great crisis which is
referred to in the 20th verse of this third chapter of Revelation, namely: that of
sitting with Jesus at the marriage supper of the Lamb. If we compile all the
various events which will be concomitant with the coming of Christ in the
clouds of heaven we find them to comprise the following items: The Lord Jesus
will descend from the right hand of the Father, accompanied by tens of
thousands of angels and saints. He will be preceded by the archangel, who will
blow the trumpet of God for the first resurrection. Those sainted dead who [PAGE
98] during their life
in the flesh were regenerated, and sanctified, and sufficiently tried to
constitute them martyrs in spirit will be raised from the dead, and glorified,
and taken up in the air to meet Jesus. Also those Christians
on earth who are entirely yielded to God, and whose hearts have been purified
and filled with the Holy Spirit, constituting
them the five wise virgins, who
have oil in their vessels, will be
suddenly glorified and caught up - [by a means of a pre-tribulation selective rapture] in the clouds ... to
meet the Lord (Compare [Luke 21: 34-36 and Revelation 3: 10.)].When Jesus thus appears in the
clouds of glory, He will not
put His foot on this earth at that time, for He tells us He will come as a flash of lightning from the east to
the west, and encircle the entire globe, and gather out His elect
ones from the four winds of heaven, or as it is distinctly prophesied in Psalms 50: “Our God
shall come, and He shall call to the heavens, and the earth, that He may
judge His people.” The word “judge” here does not mean to condemn, but to
discriminate, or discern
who His people are, and He will then say: “Gather my saints together unto me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” This is an express declaration that only those who are really saints, and who have made a covenant by the
complete sacrifice of themselves to God, shall be gathered up. At the same time we are
told that all nations and kindred shall wail because of Him, and again, that
people will run in perfect consternation to hide themselves in dens and caves
of the earth.
After Jesus has taken away His elect ones, God the Father, as
the Ancient of Days in Daniel, will institute the great judgment tribulations
on the world for having rejected Jesus, and on the fallen churches for having rejected the baptism of the Holy
Ghost. Those awful [PAGE 99] tribulations are described by Jeremiah, 25th chapter, and by Ezekiel in the 38th
chapter,
and by St. John in Revelation, chapter 18 and chapter 19:
17
to 21,
and in a great many other places in Scripture. While these tribulations are
taking place in all the earth, Jesus and His elect saints, who have been ...
translated, will be in some heavenly place, which is described in Psalms 45 as “Ivory
palaces,” and partake of
that divine banquet, which is prophesied in the parable of the kings wedding, and in the Song of Solomon and in Revelation 19. Concerning this supper we will
notice:
1. That it is
emphatically a supper of the perfected
and then glorified believers with Jesus. Now just as truly, and perfectly,
and minutely as Jesus comes down in spirit to sup with His saints here, and
enters into all the details and experiences of their lives, so, on the other
hand, the glorified saints, in supping with Jesus, will ascend up into His
glory, and be admitted into every secret of His glorious personality, and life,
and kingdom, and joy, and honour, and be made to participate in every variety
of His bliss, and every detail of His glory, and every majesty of His kingdom.
What little we have learned of Jesus is simply of His humiliation, and
suffering, and death; that is, Jesus in His prophetic and priestly offices, but we have scarcely begun to learn anything of Him as a king in the
royalty of His royal majesty and those manifold and uncreated glories that the
Father has given to Him. Just so truly as Jesus now comes to us in spirit,
so truly will we who are prepared go
to Him in a body. Just as truly as He comes to us now invisibly, we shall go to
Him visibly. Just as truly as He now consciously feels our sorrows and pains,
just so truly we shall then consciously enter into His bliss and the manifold
departments of His joy and glory. Just as truly as He now identifies Himself
with His suffering saints, speaking
of them as a part of Himself, so truly at that day the saints will realize that
Jesus is one with them, [PAGE 100] that His glory is their glory, His bliss their bliss,
His real majesty their own majesty, His rights as the ruler of the world their
own rights. We have no thoughts to think these things, and no words adequate to
express them. What will it be to enter into the joy of our Lord, and yet that
is the exact promise. The joys of Jesus are manifold. It is an eternal joy for
Him to be the only begotten Son of the Father. It is another joy to be the
Second Adam, the only pure man that never had sin. It is another joy to be the
Redeemer of sinful men, and to love them to the death. It is another joy to be
the Head of the church, the Shepherd of God’s sheep. It is another joy to be
the Giver of the blessed Holy Ghost, to sanctify and fill the breast of His
mystical body. It is another joy to be the Creator of all worlds and all
beings, to be the Architect of every grain of sand, every insect, every living
creature, and every bright star that glitters in its orbit. It is another joy
to be the only person in the universe who is the Revealer of the Eternal Father,
and the outspoken word from the bosom of that Father. It is another joy for Him
to sit in judgment on the human race, and deal out to each creature his exact reward with perfect justice.
It is another joy that He wears upon His head many crowns as the appointed and
only Sovereign of the three empires of nature, grace, and glory, and to govern
the worlds, and all angels, and all men in absolute goodness and equity. It is
another joy that He is to come back to this earth, where He had His human
birth, and from whose dust His precious body was formed, and where He shed His
precious blood, and to govern this earth in His humanity as the Son of Man.
These are only a few of the many joys that concentre and unite in the soul of
Jesus, and make that soul to be a white furnace of inexpressible bliss. And yet
into all these joys which we can feebly think of, and others that we cannot
imagine, we are to enter if we are prepared.
This is what it will be to sup with
Jesus, to share all His [PAGE 101] fullness and estates just as fully,
beautifully, tenderly, and consciously as a
bride can share the joys and estates and sovereignty of her husband,
who is the king over a great empire. Could we but get a glimpse of heaven, a
small fraction of what it will be to sup with Jesus, we should almost be beside
ourselves with holy love and flaming zeal in His service here.
2. We are fully warranted from many
passages in Scripture in believing that in heaven, in the glorified state, we
shall still have some kind of created nourishment. Many persons have formed
unnatural and unscriptural notions of the heavenly state as being diametrically
opposed to everything in the present state of existence. But such should not be
the case. Those persons who deny the literal resurrection of the body, do so
from a foolish and unscriptural fancy that matter in and of itself, is too
degraded to exist in a glorified manner. But matter of itself is not sinful,
and the three persons of the Godhead walked and communed with Adam and Eve
before their fall in a literal and material world, and their literal bodies of
flesh and blood, and their feeding literally on the fruit of the trees, did not
in the least hinder this world from being at that time a part of heaven, nor hindered in the least their fellowship with angels and with God, and to suppose that after we are glorified - [in an immortal body of “flesh and
bones” (Luke 24:
39)] - we shall no longer need any form of created nourishment is both
unphilosophical and unscriptural. The Lord Jesus and two angels visited Abraham just before the
destruction of
After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to Mt.
When Jesus instituted the Lord’s supper, after eating the
roast lamb and bread, He took the cup and gave it to the eleven disciples (for
Judas had left), and said, “This is my blood of the New Testament, but I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until that day when I
drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” It is
worse than trifling to twist these words of Jesus into a mere mythical meaning.
We see here that Judas left before this cup was passed around, and only those
were present who were the real elect. So only those will sup with Jesus in His
coming banquet, who are the real holy and tried ones. The cup of wine that
Jesus gave to His disciples was not mythical, nor imaginary wine, but the real
fruit of the vine; and, just as literally as that was the fruit of the vine, Jesus
affirms that He will drink of the real fruit of the vine with His saints in
that day in His Father’s kingdom. Hence the one wine is just as real as the
other. (Matt.
26.)
Again, St. Luke reports the words of Jesus, that those disciples who continue with Christ in His temptations,
He says to such, “I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father has appointed unto me, that ye [PAGE 103] may eat and drink at my table, in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel.” (Luke 22) These words mean exactly what they
say. That just as really as God the Father has appointed Jesus to the kingdom,
Jesus in turn appoints His elect
saints to be every one of them princes and princesses, and to have rulership in
a real literal government - [upon this restored (Gen. 3)
earth]. And He says, without any
equivocation, that these elect ones shall eat and drink at His table. These
words will be fulfilled at the
marriage supper of the Lamb, and then this supper will be followed by
these elect saints sitting on thrones and judging and governing the twelve
tribes of Israel; that is, the apostles will
come back from the wedding, and all the twelve tribes will be restored to
Palestine in the millennial age, and accept the Christ as their Messiah, and
these twelve tribes will be governed by the glorified apostles and saints. And
so the promise made in the first overcometh concerning the eating of the tree
of life will have just as real a fulfilment as Adam and Eve partook of the
fruit in the garden of Eden. Because the Scripture has a spiritual application
that does not hinder it from having an outward and a literal fulfilment.
3. Another class of events which will
transpire at the marriage supper
of the Lamb will be the judging of the members who comprise the bridehood, and the giving to each one of them
their rewards, and assigning to each one of those glorified millions, who are
typified by the hundred and forty-four thousand, their respective places in
that glorious army, that living city. That will be the time when all the living
stones which have been quarried from the mines of earth, and fashioned by
divine grace, will be silently and sweetly knit together, to make up the
radiant whole, of which the building of the temple by King Solomon was a
prophetic emblem. King David is a type of Jesus in His humiliation and
suffering, and King Solomon is a type of Jesus in His millennial reign on
earth. [PAGE 104] And as King David, before his death, prepared the material for the
building of the temple, and then Solomon took the material and built the
structure, so in like manner Jesus, in His humiliation, sufferings and death,
and through the patient operation of the Holy Ghost in this present age, has been
preparing the material for the structure of the New Jerusalem, then Jesus in
His second coming, and at His marriage banquet, will carry out the
typology of King Solomon, and there form into a gorgeous structure the living
souls that make the city which is like pure gold and shining with the glory of
God. We have another type of this city formation in the acts of Moses, who,
after bringing the Israelites out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai, there formed them into
a living city, and arranged them according to a divine pattern, putting three
tribes on the north, three on the east, three on the south, and three on the
west, giving to each tribe, and family, and individual, his exact place in that
beautiful portable city, according to the mind of God, and in the hollow square
he placed the glorious tabernacle, upon which rested the pillar of cloud by day
and the pillar of fire by night. That transaction, we are told, was according
to the pattern of things in heaven, and it had a meaning infinitely beyond the
time then present, and stretched away across the centuries to that crowning
historical event of the gathering out of the true Israel from the Egypt of this
present world, and forming them each one from the different nations and the
different centuries in his exact place in the divine city, where each of God’s
saints will find his proper place as accurately as each bone in the body has
its appropriate fitting of bone with bone, and part with part. It is a vision
of that living city of glorified saints that John described in Revelation 21. Each of those twelve precious stones will have their
counterpart in a twelve-fold variety of holy character.
If the reader will turn to the 19th
chapter
of [PAGE 105] Revelation, he will notice in the first part of the
chapter an account of this marriage
supper of the Lamb, and while that is taking place up in the heavenly
places, in the latter part of the chapter will be found the description of the
great supper of the wrath of God which is taking place among the nations on the
earth. The word “sun,” in verse 17, symbolizes royalty, or heads of
government, and an angel will move all the kings and heads of government into a
declaration of war. The “fowls” referred to always signify demons,
and these demons take delight in bloodshed and war. A battlefield is the
devil’s revival, and his supper table, and so, when captains, and kings, and
horses, and soldiers are being slaughtered in war, the devils have their
banquet. Thus we see clearly that while in verse 9 Jesus and His saints are having the wedding supper in the air, the whole earth is in a state of carnage
and suffering in the great tribulations as described in verses 17 to 20.
If we expect to be admitted to the marriage of the Lamb we must be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and glistening, as the Greek puts it, for the
fine linen is the righteousness of saints, and blessed are they
which are called unto the marriage
supper of the Lamb.
As to the length of time which the great tribulations will
last, and the coetaneous time occupied by the marriage supper, from all the
best data we can gather, it will be about forty years. Some have supposed that
two and one-half years, and others have thought that seven years, will be the
length of time for these events, but I am convinced that they will occupy about
the period of forty years. If we examine the time set forth in the last chapter
of Daniel, and deduct the prophetic day-year-of the time for the treading down
of
[PAGE 106]
Noah’s flood is a perfect type of the second coming of Christ
and concomitant events. We are told that after Noah and his family went up into
the ark, “that it rained forty days and nights.” The ascent of Noah in the ark
represents the ascent of the translated ones in the air, and the forty days of
rain represent the forty years of tribulation, as we are told, both by Moses
and Ezekiel, that a day in prophecy stands for a year. And then when the flood
began to subside, we are told, that from the time the ark rested on
After the Hebrews left
* * *
[PAGE
108]
Chapter XV
“IN MY THRONE”
Rev. 3: 21
WE HAVE NOW COME to the last of the seven overcomeths, which brings us up to
the period just after supping with Jesus on high and the setting up of His
theocratic throne in the earth. “To him that overcometh will I grant
to sit with me in my throne, even as I also
overcame and am set down with my Father in His throne.” To take an explicit promise like this,
and confine it only to a mystical and spiritual significance, is to do great
violence to the word of God. We know that a “throne” is the head and centre of a government, of a kingdom, and to
sit in a throne means to occupy the place of royalty and share the supreme
authority, and unless Jesus has a real literal kingdom of His own, and unless
He is going to receive His perfectly loyal followers into participation with
Him in the dominion and rulership in that - [divinely promised and messianic (see Ps. 2: 8; cf.
Rev.
11:
15)] - kingdom, then there are scores of
passages of Scripture which are utterly meaningless. In the book of Daniel we have a description of four great kingdoms that should arise in the
earth, [PAGE 109] and then a description of the kingdom of the Son of Man, which should
break in pieces all the other kingdoms, as a stone cut out of the mountain
without hands.
Now, if the kingdom of the Son of Man is merely mystical, then
the other four kingdoms are merely mystical also, and on the other hand, if the
four kingdoms described by Daniel were real, veritable kingdoms on this earth,
then with the same absolute certainty the kingdom of the Lord Jesus will be
real and veritable upon this earth. The one is no more mythical than is the
other. In looking into this promise of sitting with Christ in His throne, let
us consider the following items:
1. The Scriptures nowhere tell us that
the Lord Jesus has yet occupied His own throne. This may startle some at first,
but let the Word of God settle it. The eternal Son of God is equal with the
Father in nature, and substance, and attributes. But let us remember that God the Father has given to His Son Jesus, as a
God-Man, as the Son of Man, and as the Saviour of Men, a distinct throne and government over man
and over this earth. Now all the Scriptures which speak of
Jesus ascending on high represent Him as sitting “with the Father on the
Father’s throne,” and “at the right hand of the Father,” as a “mediator between
God and man,” but not one of these Scriptures speak of Jesus being on His own
throne as the Son of Man. We read in the 7th chapter of Acts that when Stephen was being stoned to death he looked up into heaven and
saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and he said:
“I
see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.” Here there is no vision of Jesus
being on His Messianic throne, but of His being at the right hand of the
Father’s throne.
In the second chapter of Acts, Peter is expounding the Messiahship
of Jesus as the lineal son and heir of King [PAGE 110] David, and quotes that Psalm where the Lord said to Jesus: “Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool.” God the Father has promised to conquer
the enemies of Jesus, and especially to subdue and bring back to Christ the
twelve tribes of
In the third chapter of Colossians the believer is represented as rising
from the death of sin, and seeking with all his heart those things which are
above, “where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” Here there is no allusion to Christ
being on His own throne, but on the Father’s throne. We read in the ninth chapter
of Hebrews that Christ has entered into the holy of holies in heaven, “to appear in the presence of
God for us.” We again
read that He is “at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” and again that He is on the throne of grace, that is, of
merciful intercession, where He can bestow the gifts of repentance, and saving faith, and salvation. But in none
of these Scriptures do we get the representation of Jesus being on His own
individual throne as a glorified man to govern the world.
2. When we come to search into all
those numerous passages that set forth Jesus as a ruler and a king over the
nations, we learn that He, as a glorified man, has been appointed of God the
Father to rule this world, just as literally as God made Adam and Eve to be a
king and [PAGE 111] queen, and to have dominion over everything on this earth, so Jesus, as
the Second Adam and the heir of David, is to own and govern this world, not
merely as an eternal person of the Godhead, but as an incarnate God, as a
perfectly holy and obedient man, as the son of Mary and the son of David, He is
to rule this world. In His divinity as the Creator of All Worlds, He owns this
globe, but in His humanity, here is where His body was prepared for Him, out of
the dust of this planet. Here is where He was born of a human mother and had
His temporal generation. This earth has been moistened with His tears and
baptized with His blood, and He as a Man has absolute rights over this planet,
and over all its population, in a manner different from His rights over any
other material world. This line of thought is often utterly omitted when people
read the Scriptures concerning the
David was the founder of God’s theocratic government among
men. He was a man and a king after God’s own heart, and the Lord made an
eternal covenant with David, that of the seed of His flesh He would raise up a
king that should govern this world forever and ever. Jesus was, in His human
nature, the lineal offspring of King David, and is to occupy David’s throne,
and enlarge, and perfect, and establish, that theocratic government, which was
started in the reign of King David. Hence Jesus is compared to David, far more
than to any and all other men in the Bible, and His kingdom as a glorified man
is so frequently termed “the kingdom of David,” and His throne as a son of man, is often called “the throne of David.” In the third chapter of Hosea, we read the prophecy of the
The prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, contain many
descriptions of the theocratic reign of the Lord Jesus on this earth, as King
David, or as the Son of David. To deny the literal fulfilment of
these prophecies - [which all Anti-millennialists are doing today] - is to convert the Word of God
into Swedenborgian mysticism, and do violence to all the rules of scriptural interpretation.
In the 34th chapter of Ezekiel, we have a most exact and beautiful portrayal of the reign of the Lord on
this earth, under the name of David, at which time, “He will make
with all nations a covenant of peace, and will
cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, and
the people shall dwell safely in the wilderness,
and sleep in the woods,” and at that time He will make the trees of the field yield their fruit,
and make the earth to yield her increase, and everything shall be safe in the
land, and this King David shall break the bands of every yoke, and be at that
time a plant of renown. If these words do not mean exactly [PAGE 113] what they say, then prophecy is a
mere myth. In the first chapter of the Gospel by Luke,
the angel Gabriel, who announced to Mary the birth of Jesus, told her
expressly, “that
her son Jesus should be great, and should be called the Son of the Highest,
and that the Lord God should give unto Him the throne of His Father David, and that He should reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and that of His kingdom there should be no end.” Now remember, that these words of
the angel Gabriel were addressed to Mary as the Mother of Jesus, and they prophesy the throne that Jesus should
have as a man, and as the royal heir of King David.
Jesus has never yet ruled over the twelve tribes of Jacob, as their own king,
and so this prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, but it is to have an exact and
literal accomplishment.
If we notice the parables of Jesus concerning His second
coming, He so often says that at that time “the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory,” and at the same time those shall be
glorified and “sit with Him on thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matt. 19: 27, 28.) And again, He speaks of “the Son of
Man coming in His kingdom.” He says that “when the Son of Man shall come in His glory,
that then He shall sit upon the throne of His glory.”
(Matt. 25: 31.) Jesus never speaks of sitting on His
throne in His glory except in connection with His second coming.
Thus we see, from a great number of Scriptures, the theocratic
throne of David is to be restored and established in a literal government over
all the nations of this world. In harmony with this line of exposition, we see
in the 19th
chapter of
Revelation an account of “the Lambs wife making herself ready, and
being arrayed in fine linen, and then of her
being called to the marriage supper of the Lamb; and this is followed by a
glorious description of the Lord Jesus, with
eyes as a flame of fire, and on His head many crowns, and being clothed in
a [PAGE 114] vesture dipped in blood, and the armies in heaven,
that is, the glorified members of His
bridehood, following him, riding
upon white horses, and this is followed by His
taking charge of all the nations, and smiting the refractory elements of
society as with a rod of iron, and then of His assuming the title of King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Thus we see that each verse presents a successive
unfolding of consecutive events which are concurrent with the marriage supper, and immediately following that supper. This is the same
line of truth presented in the closing verses of this third chapter of Revelation, where the [Pre-tribulation] translated
saints and the resurrection
saints are to sup with Jesus, and this is followed by Christ assuming the throne of David, and re-establishing the
theocratic kingdom on earth, and then taking the glorified members of His bridehood into partnership with Himself,
and giving them places in His government as sitting with Him on the throne. It
is in the light of this interpretation that we are to understand that large
class of Scriptures which set forth that “if we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him.” But let us remember that the word
suffer in this connection does not mean any kind of suffering, but it is the same word which is used of the
crucifixion of Jesus, that is, “If we are crucified with Him we shall reign with Him.”
There is not a single text of Scripture which
represents the new birth of itself as qualifying any one to reign with
Christ in His coming [millennial] kingdom, but in every single place where reigning
with Christ is spoken of there are terms used which indicate something more
than justification [by faith],
terms strongly expressive of being dead to sin, of following Christ to the death, of being
purified, made white, and tried.
3. Now Christ affirms that those who are the overcomers will
share His coming kingdom just as emphatically and as surely as He at the
present time as a glorified man is sharing the Father’s government in heaven.
Jesus tells [PAGE 115] us in this 21st verse that He has overcome, and
is now sitting down with the Father in the Father’s throne, and just as much as
that is a literal fact, so He affirms that His perfectly loyal disciples, shall
sit in His government when He reigns on the earth.
In a vast empire there are a great many departments of
government. When we look into the structure of the Kingdom of Great Britain or
the United States we find a great many departments of government and each of
the heads of these various departments have under them officers and assistants,
divided and subdivided, extending into ramified details, covering the whole
territory of government in its legislative and judicial and executive
functions, at home and abroad, in its commercial, educational, religious,
agricultural, scientific, and social relations, furnishing busy employment and
a field for the exercise of innumerable gifts and capabilities to many
thousands of persons. Thus when the Lord Jesus, as a glorified man and the
crowned heir of David, shall sit on His throne as the King of this World, He
will institute the greatest and most glorious and most diversified empire ever
known to the human mind. All the kings that have ever existed in this world in
their most perfect state of glory will be in comparison with the theocratic
We are told by the prophet Daniel that during the great
tribulations under the judgments of the Ancient of Days, “that the thrones of the
earth will be cast down,”
that is, every human government on this earth will go to wreck in those
tribulations, and all the ecclesiastical organization of the fallen churches
will crumble to pieces, all secret societies and corporate organizations and
federated associations will at that time crumble to pieces, and when Jesus “returns from the
wedding to take His kingdom,” [PAGE 116] He will find the people on the earth
in a state of practical anarchy and governmental dissolution. It will be out of
the wreck of all these forms of government that Jesus will organize His kingdom
and remodel the geography of the globe and appoint to each member of His
glorified bridehood an appropriate office of service and a principality of
honour in that kingdom. These various principalities are more distinctly set
forth in the 4th
chapter of
Revelation which we are to hereafter consider.
* * *
[PAGE
117]
Chapter XVI
“THE RAINBOW AROUND THE THRONE”
Rev. 4: 3
IN UNDERSTANDING THE BOOK of Revelation we must remember that, while it is in
some sense a consecutive unveiling of historical events, from the days of St.
John to the end of the Christian age, and the end of the millennium at the same
time, the visions are given in different sections, so that in some respects the
same historical ground is repeated over again. As for instance the first four
chapters is a setting forth of events from the days of John up to the
millennial kingdom with especial reference to stages of the visible church.
Then another series of visions is given with reference to the political history
of the nations, such as the rise of popery and Mohammedism. Then another series
of visions with reference to God’s judgments upon the nations, the downfall of
Romanism, and the great tribulations.
As we now come to the fourth chapter of Revelation, we have here the setting up of
Christ’s theocratic throne in the
Now this throne spoken of in the fourth
chapter, surrounded
by the rainbow, and filled with the living creatures, is the instituting of the
millennial government over the nations.
1. It is clearly set forth in Scripture
that this millennial throne will be set up in
There are prophecies in the 33rd chapter of Isaiah, concerning Zion and Jerusalem, which
have never been fulfilled, and which have more than a mere spiritual
application, for it is Zion and the City of Jerusalem which is to be a quiet
habitation, and never taken down, and never removed, and it is there that the
Lord will reveal Himself. There are to be rivers and streams, upon which there
are no galley slave boats, or war ships, but where the King shall be seen in
His beauty, and where the lame shall take the prey, and where the inhabitant
shall not say he is sick.
We are told in the 3rd chapter of Jeremiah, of the return [PAGE 120] of the backsliding
2. “He that sat upon the throne was to
look upon, like a jasper and the sardius.” This is a vision of the inexpressible
beauty and glory of Jesus as He will appear to His saints and the people of the
earth in His millennial kingdom. This is like the vision of Him which Daniel
had, and which John describes in the first chapter
of Revelation. The “jasper” is the precious stone which is the wall of the heavenly
Jerusalem, and the sardine, the same as sardius, or a blood red ruby, is the
centre stone in the heavenly city; hence we see that Jesus unites in Himself
every glory from the centre to the circumference of the City of God, and every
possible gift, and grace, and [PAGE 121] majesty, and charm which it is possible for the
Godhead to bestow upon the humanity of the Incarnate Word.
As Jesus, after the resurrection, appeared and disappeared at
will to His servants, appointing them a place to meet, and suddenly appearing
in their midst and holding sweet communion with them, and then vanishing out of
their sight, so it will be when He reigns on this earth.
3. “There was a
rainbow round about the throne, in sight like
unto an emerald.”
This rainbow, the predominant colour of which was green, opens up a vast range
of glorious things which will exist in the millennial kingdom. This is a
companion picture in all respects with that which is set forth in the 9th
chapter of Genesis, when God stretched the rainbow over
Noah’s altar, just after the flood. Jesus Himself tells us, in the 24th
chapter
of Matthew,
of the wonderful analogy between Noah’s flood and His second coming, and that
analogy is more accurate and marvellous than we might at first sight apprehend.
The ascent of Noah and his family up into the ark corresponds with the ascent
of those in the first resurrection and the translated saints into the air to
meet Jesus. The descent of the rain punishing the inhabitants
living in sin corresponds with the great tribulations. The return of
the ark with its inhabitants back to Mount Ararat corresponds with the return
of Jesus and His glorified saints back to
If we carefully read Isaiah 54th we will see a description of the Lord as a Husband
being married to believers that should be selected from among the Gentiles, and
that the Lord, under the character of a Husband and a Redeemer, shall be called
in that day the God of the whole earth, and that He will establish His
everlasting kindness, and that the curse which He put on the earth should be
removed just as the waters of Noah’s flood were removed, and that the covenant
which He made with Noah concerning the earth not being drowned any more should
be repeated and re-fulfilled in the covenant of peace which He will make at
that time. He also prophesies the building up of His millennial throne and
kingdom in
4. There is great significance in the
fact that the predominant colour in the rainbow was that of emerald or green.
This colour represents hope, verdure, or spring of the year, prosperity. When
the High Priest in the Jewish economy put on his breastplate, there were twelve
precious stones in the breastplate, a stone for each of the [PAGE
123] twelve tribes,
and it is significant that the stone for
The same truth applies to the covenant which will be carried
out in the theocratic government of Jesus on earth. The curse will be lifted
from men, and women, and children, and from the four-footed beasts, and the
fowls of the air, and the trees of the field, and the earth itself. The curse
God put on man was that of hard work, and sweat; difficulty of making a living,
and this will be lifted away. The curse God put on woman was that of suffering
in her office as a mother in the bearing and caring for of children, and this
curse will be removed at the opening of the millennial age from the people who
are living at that time. Of course, we must remember that these truths apply,
not to the glorified saints who have returned with Christ from the wedding, but
to those human beings who [PAGE 124] have lived on the earth through the great
tribulations, and who will be the progenitors of the millennial generations.
The curse on the four-footed beasts was that of devouring each other, and this
curse will be removed, for we are told emphatically that the lion will eat
straw and grass, and be perfectly harmless in that age. The curse on the ground
was that it should not bring forth its normal crops, and this curse will be
removed under the reign of Jesus. “And all the trees will yield their
fruit, and the earth will yield her increase,” and one acre of ground will doubtless
yield more than twenty acres now. The curse will be taken away from the
atmosphere, and there will be no abnormal seasons, no storms, no cyclones, no
earthquakes, but every movement of the four seasons, and of the winds, and the
temperature, and of the harvests of the earth, will be as accurate, and
beautiful, and harmonious, as the roll of the shining stars along their
unvarying orbits. Everything will take on the character of verdure, and
healthfulness, and vigour, and prosperity. All outward sin will be prohibited.
Satan will be bound, and though the nations, by their natural generation, will
have the principal of inward sin, the same as now, yet there will be no demons
to tempt, and no outward forms of wickedness allowed, hence the people will be
born under conditions of perfect love. Their intellects will be clear, and
vigorous, and not possessed as they now are by demons. Everything will conduce
to deep spirituality, and breadth, and clearness of intellectual wisdom, and
the rapidly multiplying populations of that age will be under the continual
guardianship, instruction, and dominion of the glorified saints, who will be,
as Scripture teaches us, the elder brethren, that is “the church of the first born,” to the nations who will live on the
earth.
Thus the theocratic throne, with the emerald rainbow around
it, sets forth the coming government, that it shall be one of glory and
prosperity, extending from the [PAGE 125] centre of the
throne out into all the ramified details of nature, and grace, and all men and
animals, and the laws of the material world.
* *
*
[PAGE 126]
Chapter XVII
“THE LIVING CREATURES IN THE THRONE”
Rev. 4: 6
AFTER TELLING us of the vision of the theocratic throne, with the Lord Jesus sitting on
the throne, in the radiance of His glorified humanity, and the rainbow of
emerald around the throne, the type of everlasting verdure and prosperity, both
in the spiritual, and intellectual, and material world, the apostle proceeds to
describe the “four living creatures” that sit with Christ in the midst of the throne, that
is, the glorified members of His mystical body, who are to share with Him
places of honour and authority in His everlasting government. The four and
twenty elders referred to are doubtless the twelve patriarchs and the twelve
apostles.
The four living creatures spoken of in this chapter are
exactly the same as the living creatures described in Ezekiel’s vision, and if
we look carefully into the first and tenth chapters of Ezekiel, we find his vision a
description of the opening of the millennial age, and the restoration [PAGE
127] of the Jews to
their own land, under the restored throne of David, and the living creatures
that moved like flashes of lightnings and had the appearance of burning coals
of fire, that superintended the movement of the wheels, is a description of the
ministry of the glorified saints in the millennial age.
Concerning these creatures, and their rank in the coming
1. The four living creatures described
by
2. Unless the cherubim represent redeemed
and glorified humanity, then there was nothing in the whole system of Jewish
typology to set it forth. In the structure of the Hebrew tabernacle and temple
there was a careful representation of the whole process of redemption, of the
incarnation of Jesus, of the atonement for sin, both [PAGE
128] actual and
original, of repentance, of regeneration, of sanctification, and the gift of
the Holy Spirit, all set forth in various forms and degrees. Now would it not
be strange to set forth the whole purpose of redemption without having anything
to represent the result of redemption, to emblematize the outcome of salvation
in glorified humanity? Hence the erection of the cherubim on the mercy seat was
a type of the living creatures that should be the outcome of redeeming grace
and the glorified ministry of the coming age.
3. We learn from the writings of Moses
that the form of the cherubim or the living creatures was made out of the
identical same piece of gold that formed the lid of the mercy seat on the ark.
They were not made of a separate piece of gold, or in any wise detached from
the lid, but the same piece that formed the lid was turned up at the ends to
form the image of the living creatures. This shows that the same piece of gold
on which the blood was sprinkled was the identical one that formed the
cherubim, illustrating that the same beings who were sprinkled by the precious
blood of the atonement were to be the living creatures in whom should dwell the
radiant fire of the Shekinah, the living, burning presence of God Himself
within them.
The word “cherub”
means one who is “held fast,” one seized upon
as with a tight grasp, hence the cherubim was held fast to the lid of the mercy
seat, and represents that thorough and perfect union between the Lord Jesus and
those who are fully saved and established in holiness and held in His right
hand, and who share the highest possible union with Christ in His life, and
sufferings, and victory, and who are to have dominion.
The word “seraphim” means the “burning ones,”
those who are filled with the Holy Ghost and fire, typified by the Shekinah
flame that shone out between the wings of the cherubim over the ark. (Ps. 80. 1st).
[PAGE 129]
4. These living creatures are set forth
as being ministers of grace, which is nowhere the case with angels. One of
these seraphim’s conveyed the live coal of fire to the lips of Isaiah, a type
of the fire baptized ministry, conveying the living word of God to seeking
souls, and rendering service in their purification. Also in the vision of
Ezekiel these living creatures always go the way the Holy Spirit leads, and out
of them went forth flashes of lightning, setting forth that they were the
channels for the outflow of the Holy Spirit.
5. These living creatures are
represented in the 5th chapter of Revelation as having the harps of God and golden
vials full of odors, which are expressly said to be
the prayers of the sanctified ones, and they sing the new song, praising the
Lord Jesus who was slain and had redeemed them to God by His blood out of every
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and had made them unto God kings
and priests, and they rejoiced that they should reign with Jesus on the earth.
This proves absolutely and concisely everything I have said in the preceding
items that they were redeemed and glorified men, and had been lifted to a place
in the theocratic government of Jesus over the nations.
6. They arc called the four living
creatures because “four” is that number
which sets forth redeemed humanity, especially those who have very high rank
among the redeemed and glorified ones. They had the face of a lion, typifying
royalty, and the face of an ox, typifying humble service, the face of a man,
signifying intelligence or enlightened reason, and the face of a soaring eagle,
typifying supernatural and divine victory over all terrestrial things.
We have already seen the startling accuracy of analogy,
between Noah and the flood, and the ark as representing the coming of Jesus,
and the concurrent events. Now it was a singular providence, that God arranged
that [PAGE 130] there should be just four men in the ark, and each man with his wife.
These four men, coming forth from the ark at the opening of the new age, after the
flood, was a perfect type of the four living creatures that John speaks of, as
being in the throne with the Lord Jesus, at the opening of the millennial age.
This is not all. During the days of Daniel in
Again we are told both by our Saviour and by St. Peter that the transfiguration of Jesus was designed expressly to set forth “His coming and His kingdom.” Now with the same accuracy of divine
providence, Jesus took only three of the apostles with Him up into the
mountain, and [Page 131] those [were] the ones who lived in closest relationship with Himself, typifying the
elected ones, or those who should be the most [mature in the faith and] perfectly prepared. Jesus and Peter and James and John in that
transfiguration glory correspond exactly with Noah and his three sons in the
ark, and with the Son of God and the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, and
with the four living creatures in the millennial throne.
We must remember that the Scriptures represent Jesus as one
with His saints, a brotherhood of kings. They are heirs and joint heirs to the
same kingdom, and one of the amazing surprises that await the real humble
followers of Jesus will be the extent to which they will share His joy, and
glory, and honour, and dominion in His coming kingdom.
7. If we want to get a correct view of
the mode of existence which will characterize the glorified saints during the
millennial reign, we have it set forth in the manner of life which Jesus spent
in the forty days after He arose from the dead. From the instant that Jesus
arose from the dead, His body was glorified and absolutely free from all material
laws, and under the supreme sway of the laws of the glorified world, if we can
say that that state of being has any laws apart from the unlimited choice of
the will. He told Mary when she approached Him near the sepulchre after He had
arisen that He had not ascended
to the Father. But [later] that very day He did ascend to the Father and report the completed work of
redemption, and that night showed Himself to His disciples, and invited them to
handle Him and see that He was indeed the veritable Jesus of Nazareth. He
appeared and disappeared at will, taking His body through stone walls, with
barred doors, eating and drinking with His disciples, and communing with them
familiarly and lovingly, and then vanishing out of their sight. Here we have the manner in which the [resurrected and] glorified saints will live and reign with Christ during the millennial age. They are to be the priests, and [PAGE 132] ministers,
and teachers, and superintend all
the details of life among the nations in that age, and, like the risen [Lord] Jesus, will appear to the people on the
earth to instruct, or aid, or correct, or commune with them at will, and at
will vanish again into the air. The whole atmosphere surrounding the earth will be
thronged day and night with these glorified ones, swiftly and safely moving
hither and thither on the earth or in the air, singing as they go, with the
harps of God in their hands, and crowns of gold upon their brow, and songs of
ecstatic gladness on their lips, each one filling His own appointed mission in
absolute harmony with each other and with their King.
It is very evident that all
the millions of the other saved ones who did not rise in the first resurrection will be
present with Jesus, and remain in their
present state as disembodied and happy spirits awaiting them, as they do
now, [for] the
general resurrection.
[* See Rev. 20: 12-15;
Cf.
Luke 20:
35, 36;
Phil. 3: 11,
12,
R.V.)]
The apostle John tells us very definitely about the living
creatures, and about the number that constitute the bride of the lamb being
with Jesus in His throne, that is, rulers
in His government, but he tells us of all the others of the saved ones from
the earth, comprising a multitude that no man could number, that they stood
before the throne, that is, they were members of the Kingdom of Heaven, and
shared in its glory, but had not yet
been raised to places of rulership in the kingdom. This is no fancy
description of my own, but one that is expressly stated in several places and
in different ways in the Word of God, and I must simply take the Word of God as
it is. When the Scriptures speak of those persons who make up the bride of the
Lamb, or who sit at the wedding supper, or who are rulers with Jesus, it always
speaks of them as a definite number,
but when the Scriptures speak of all the saved ones from the human race,
including the saved among the heathen, who obeyed their light and the saved
number of countless millions who have died in [PAGE 133] infancy, and the saved multitudes who
are cleansed in the hour of death, it speaks of them as being like the sands of
the seashore, and like the innumerable stars of heaven, and as being a
multitude that no man could number. Hence the old notion that all the redeemed
ones from the earth have the same rank in the future ages is utterly
unscriptural as well as unreasonable. No one will reign with Jesus in
His coming kingdom, except those who have paid for that
privilege in this life by the humility and crucifixion of self and the testings
of faith, which have qualified them
for that position. This is exactly
the teaching of Jesus when the mother of James and John requested that her two
sons should sit the one on the right and the other on the left when He came to
reign on this earth, and Jesus told
her expressly that such positions in
His coming [millennial] kingdom had to be purchased by drinking His cup and sharing His baptism, and that no one could be lifted to
such a principality in His empire, except those for whom it was prepared and
those who were prepared for the position.
8. We are told in several places that
these living creatures in the throne “are to rule the nations with a rod of
iron,” and that
they “shall break all nations to pieces, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers,” and “that they shall tread down the
wicked as ashes under their feet,” and that “they shall have dominion over the wicked.”
Let us remember that at the opening of
the millennial age, when Jesus and His saints return from the wedding, they
will find the nations of the earth in a sad plight. Doubtless many will repent
in the tribulations, but still sin will be rampant, and there will be a sharp,
decisive conflict with ungodly men at the opening of the new age, to bring them
into perfect subjection to the theocratic throne. This is strikingly declared
and set forth in this 4th chapter by the words, that “out of the
throne [PAGE
134] proceeded lightnings, and
thunderings, and voices.” These lightnings and thunderings are
the imperial edicts that will go forth among all nations at the very opening of
the millennial government. Many persons - [i.e.,
Post-millennialists] - suppose that the wicked nations on this earth are to be conquered by
mild and gradual processes of religion, but every place in Scripture which
describes the conquering of the nations sets it forth as a short, sharp,
decisive conflict, not accomplished by gospel principles, but by the imperial
Son of God taking charge of the world and its people.
As soon as the throne of David is again set up in
Remember that these glorified beings will have power equal to the angels, for Jesus says, those who
shall be counted, as the Greek has it, “extra worthy of
a place in the first resurrection, shall be equal to the angels.” The look
from an angel’s face paralyzed the hundred soldiers guarding the tomb of Jesus.
The brush of an angel’s wing* - [* i.e. an angel’s judgment;
for angels, in Scripture, are not described as having wings! (Gen. 19: 1, 10-13; cf.
John 20:
11-14)] - swept the breath out of 185,000
Assyrian soldiers slumbering in their camp around
A very good illustration can be found in that of the conquest
of England by William the Conqueror. Previous to his conquest, England was
filled with petty kings and kingdoms, but the great William wiped out these
petty kingdoms, and consolidated all England under one government, and he
appointed his officers and soldiers, who had fought with him, to places in his
kingdom, making them dukes, and earls, and lords, and knights, and assigning to
them different counties and earldoms. And at the beginning of his consolidated
government, he sent forth some thundering edicts among the people, and among
them was an edict that the people of
It is then that men will learn the art of war no more. The
last vestige of it will pass away. There will be no more locks and keys, no
more jails, or courthouses, or human legislatures, no more lawyers, or doctors,
no more railroad magnates, or wheat gamblers, or scheming money lenders, or
heretical teachings, or implements of vice, or games of chance, or theatres. Righteousness will fill the earth as the waters fill the sea.
Everybody will be under the guardianship of the myriads of the glorified living
creatures, and every department of life superintended by them, with inspired
and infallible equity, and beauty, and gentle, tender love. The glorified ones
will be the church of the firstborn,
and they will take care of all the billions [PAGE 136] who will be born in that age, as a loving,
thoughtful elder sister cares for the younger ones of the family.
9. After these revolutionary and
reconstruction movements, typified by the lightnings and thunderings from the throne,
John says he saw before the throne a sea of glass, clear as crystal. After the
storm and shock of reconstruction has been gone through with, in which the
nations of the world will make a rapid transition from anarchy to the heavenly
theocracy, then the nations will be rapidly evangelized, and under the ministry
of the glorified ones millions on millions will be speedily led to repentance,
and saving faith, and sanctifying power. All demons will have been chained in
the pit. People’s consciences and minds will be open to truth. Their great
sufferings will have conquered their pride. The blessed Holy Ghost will flood
the world with His presence. The message of grace will be everywhere
accompanied with divine power, and nations will be born to God in a day.
The words “sea” and “waters” in this book represent the souls of men. Clear, glassy water
represents pure, sanctified souls. Hence, shortly after the throne of Jesus is
set up, in front of the throne, the nations of the earth will be spread out,
like a beautiful silver sea of transparent glass, their souls purified and
filled with quietness, and love, and obedience, and all the moral,
intellectual, and social conditions of mankind, will move onward through the
bright, beautiful centuries, like a clear, glassy stream flowing smoothly over
golden sands.
This same picture is given by John again in the 15th
chapter,
where he describes the glorified saints who had come off more than conquerors
as standing on the glassy sea, that is, they presided over the tranquil,
purified nations of the earth, and had the harps of God, and sung the song of
Moses and the song of the Lamb.
There are times when we get very close to God, and His pure
love burns so sweetly in our hearts that these [PAGE 137] visions given us by St. John are
spread out so clearly before our eye of faith that we perceive them with a
vividness and reality that make our heart flutter with the anticipation of the
glory, and brightness, and sweetness, and music, and worship, and heavenly
intelligence that will fill the world in those golden days. Who does not long
to see these things come to pass? This is the vision that thrilled
When King Solomon built the temple he put in front of the
altar a brazen sea supported by twelve brazen oxen. This was an inspired type.
Solomon’s reign was a type of the millennial kingdom, and the brazen sea a type
of the sea of glass, or sanctified society, and being supported by twelve oxen,
typified that the millennial kingdom would be supported by the members of
Christ’s bridehood, that is, the twelve times twelve of the hundred and
forty-four thousand. Well may we say, “blessed and holy are they that shall have a part in
the first resurrection,” and that [we] shall be “counted
worthy” of a place
to reign with Jesus in His throne and “in His kingdom.”
* *
*
[PAGE 138]
CONCLUSION
I HAVE NOT HAD SPACE in this book to give a detailed account of the many
prophecies which refer to the millennial age, or to set before the reader the
marvellous glories that will fill the earth at that time in the extraordinary
inventions, and the social, intellectual, and spiritual progress that will then
be developed.
We learn from several prophecies such as “The child
shall die a hundred years old, and the age of my
people shall be as the age of a tree,” that human life among those who are born in that age
will be lengthened to antediluvian lifetime. We must remember, however, that the human race will still be in a fallen condition, and those who are born in that age will have the principle of original
sin in their nature, hence the Scriptures do not teach that everybody born
in that age will be holy. Several places in the Book of Psalms, it is said in the margin, that many people in that time “will serve the King
feignedly.” Hence toward
the close of that age there will be great multitudes who have secret sin in
their hearts, and will be open to the delusion and devices of a tempting devil.
So John tells us “that after the thousand years are ended Satan [PAGE 139] will again be loosed out of
his prison for a short time, and go forth to
deceive these multitudes” who harbour inward sin, and they will rebel
against the dominion of the saints; then lightning from heaven will destroy
every one of them. Then follows the
general resurrection, of both great and small, all the dead who had not been
raised in the first resurrection. Then the great white throne is set up in
the regions of the air, and every human being will be assembled, and stand one
by one before that throne to give an account of himself. This great judgment
day may last a thousand years, or a sufficient time for all the untold millions
of earth to render an exact detail account of his life during probation.
During that time the earth will be burned over, and
crystallized into a glorious orb, and the water in the sea will be consumed by
the fire, and the whole planet celestialized, and made a part of the heaven of
glory. The lost will be banished into the outer regions of darkness, and the
saved of all the ages, both “the church of the first born,” and the church of the second born, and the myriads
that were saved in the millennial age, will return to the glorified earth as
their home, with the privileges of angels and glorified beings of other worlds,
of moving to and fro throughout all the whole universe according to the will of
God.
There are intimations in Scripture that all the created worlds
will be in the future ages filled with intelligent populations, and that God
will use the saved and glorified millions of this earth as missionaries and
ministers to the younger races of beings on the other worlds to warn them
against falling into sin by rehearsing to them the awful history of sin in our
own world.
* * *
[PAGE
141]
Supplement Chapter
CHRIST’S
RETURN TO
WHEN WE HAVE a clear spiritual apprehension of the coming of Christ back to this earth
to gather out His saints and glorify them, and then to assume personal dominion
over the nations of the earth for a thousand years, it enables us to understand
a great multitude of Scripture passages which are otherwise enveloped in great
mist, or else entirely unintelligible. There are many acts in the life of Jesus
which seem without significance, unless interpreted as prophetic events to be
accomplished in His return back to this earth. There are many things recorded
in the gospels that never have had their proper weight with believers, and are
seen only as brilliant fragments in the life of Jesus, because they have not
been looked upon in the light of His pre-millennial coming, and as prophetic
events of His reign on the earth. The banquet at Bethany is declared by Christ
Himself as prophetic, and when Mary anointed Him with spikenard as being a
prophecy of His death and burial, and the breaking of the alabaster box, the
breaking of His body, [PAGE 142] and pouring forth the ointment, the pouring forth of
His life on the world. The transfiguration was given expressly as a prophetic
sample of His second coming and outshining of His glory when He gathers His
elect ones from heaven and earth up into the air; and there is no proper
understanding of that event except as a type of His second coming. In like
manner the account of Jesus riding into
First. We see in this account that our Lord
was returning to
But just as certainly as this nobleman has called His
servants, and given them various gifts and responsibilities, and is now gone
into a far country, so certainly [PAGE 143] will He return to the very city, and country, and
earth, from whence He went.
Second. We see in this account of the
triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, that He laid aside His usual conduct
of being a servant, and began to assume the conduct of authority, and royalty,
and to exercise that legitimate authority which belonged to Him as an inherent
king over His subjects. He sent two of His disciples into the village, and
commanded them to take the young ass and colt, on which no man had ever rode,
and to bring it to Him, and said, “If any man shall say ought to you
about it, you shall say, ‘The Lord hath need of him.’” This incident rises out from the
usual tenor of the life of Jesus, as an abrupt mountain rises from a plain, and
it is marked all over with the character
of absolute ownership and authority over all men and animals. Jesus was the
absolute proprietor of those disciples, and of that colt, and of the man who
temporarily owned the colt, as He was the proprietor of every atom on the
earth, and of all worlds, and of all creatures. But all through His life He
acted as one utterly poor, and forewent all His rights as a God and a king,
depending on others for His sustenance, and living as a beneficiary on the
charity of His creatures. But in this event, the veil of absolute poverty is,
for a moment, rent asunder, and He emerges from His life of
poverty, and His words and actions betray Him to be
absolute owner of all things. We
never can understand this act in its vast magnitude until we make it the telescope through which we look over the centuries
to the time when He shall again return to Jerusalem, no longer in the guise of a servant, and depending on His creatures, but as Lord and monarch over everybody and everything, whether angels, or men, or animals, or the inanimate creation. And
when looked at in this light, how this simple [PAGE 144] record in Matthew towers aloft, and expands into a vast
and broad significance, which gives it a meaning equal to the glorious
personage of the Lord Jesus.
Third. We are told in these verses, that
Jesus entered
Now in the light of this prophecy it is simply preposterous
absurdity to say that all this magnificent [PAGE 145] prophecy by Zechariah was fulfilled
in that one transient demonstration of Jesus entering
Fourth. When Christ went riding into the
city there were two companies, one went with Him and the other came out from
the city to meet Him. And so we read that one multitude went before Him, and
another followed Him, and they cried, saying: “Hosanna to the [PAGE 146] Son of David.” This
was prophetic of the two companies that will greet the Lord Jesus, and hail Him
as king of the world. One company will descend
with Him from the wedding - [after the Pre-tribulation Rapture (Luke 21: 34-36; Revelation 3: 10.)] Those saints who
are counted worthy to be raised in the
first resurrection, and those
who shall be prepared to be caught away at His appearing; these will be glorified
and be with Him at the banquet in the air, and these are the ones who will
return from the wedding. And then as He descends in fulfilment of prophecy to put
His foot again on
Fifth. We see that both of these multitudes
in their hosannahs said, expressly, “Jesus is the Son of David.” Jesus is not only God, but a man,
and, in His humanity, the offspring of King David, who was the founder of the
theocracy, and Jesus as Son of David is the direct lineal heir to the throne of
David. Now it is significant that since the birth of Jesus the Jews have never
been able to find the rightful undeparted heir to the
throne of David, for the lines of pedigree from the birth of Jesus ran off into
so many directions it has been impossible for them to fix on the lineage of the
true heir, and the man Jesus, the son of Mary, stands forth in history as the
last and only heir to the theocratic throne which was established by David, [PAGE
147] the man after
God’s own heart. For nearly two thousand years the Jewish throne has been in
eclipse, but the day is fast approaching when Jesus as David shall descend to
this earth and triumphantly ride into
Sixth. When Christ went riding into the
city, accompanied by these shouting multitudes, we are told that all the city was
moved at the spectacle, saying, “Who is this?” And the multitude said, “This is Jesus.” This item will be most perfectly
fulfilled when Jesus returns to set up His government. All the people on the
earth who have survived the great tribulations will be profoundly moved to the
innermost depths of their being in that memorable day. Let us remember at that
time the hundreds of millions on the earth will be in an unsaved condition,
rent and torn by the storms of the great tribulation, but ignorant of God and
of [His] salvation, and the nations of the
earth will just be emerging from a state of anarchy, so that when Christ and
the glorified saints return to the earth it may well strike a supernatural awe
into all other spirits.
Let us notice the striking contrast between the multitudes who
followed Jesus into the city and the people of the city who were so moved at
the spectacle. Those who followed Him were filled with enthusiastic praises,
casting their garments in the way, they prostrated themselves along the road,
their very souls bursting forth with [Page 148] enthusiastic applause. That scene
faintly indicates the unbounded adoration and worship that will be given to
Jesus by those who accompany Him back to this earth; they will throng His
descending pathway from the heavenly wedding, and throw themselves millions on
millions in postures of adoration and love and praise before Him, casting their
crowns at His feet, and rending the very skies with their sweet voiced
hallelujahs.
I may stop here to say that those persons who will be among
that happy throng are those who already in this life have abandoned themselves
utterly to Jesus, and often prostrated themselves in humble secret prayer,
casting their words and thoughts and lives like green boughs under His blessed
feet, and receive Him already as their absolute owner and king in all the
affairs of life. But those people who were in the city, and who were excited
and moved at the royal procession, represent the unsaved nations on the earth
when Jesus comes with His glorified army to take possession.
Seventh. After reaching the
What act in the life of Jesus could more beautifully set forth
the character of the beginning of His millennial reign. At that time He will
most thoroughly upset all the ungodly practices on the earth, and destroy every
form of unrighteous traffic among the nations; but this very austerity of royal
power will draw to Him the suffering, and the afflicted, and the weary-hearted
ones, who have gone through the awful storm of the tribulation; and, right in
connection with the suppressing of all wickedness among the nations, Jesus will exercise infinite compassion in healing all the sick on the
earth, and comfort the broken-hearted, and extend His saving grace to all
nations, and so work through the
agency of His glorified - [resurrected and translated] - saints, and the omnipresent power of
the Holy Ghost, that in a short
time from the setting up of His throne in Jerusalem, the earth shall be filled with the glory of God, as the waters fill the sea. Thus we discover that this brilliant
pageant of Christ entering Jerusalem, was not merely for that one day, but,
like a momentary sign in the roll of history, it furnishes a brief sample of
what will occur again - not as a transient event of a day, but as an abiding
and world-wide fulfilment and of a magnitude that shall comport with Him as
Lord of lords and King of kings!
THE END