Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Central Subject of The Book of Revelation

Although I won't be quoting Guinness in every post, today's post continues where the last one left off. All italics and paragraphing are from the original, although I'm not sure I can exactly reproduce them here.

"In agreement with the foregoing principle I have written, among others, two works on the interpretation of the symbolical prophecies in Daniel and the Apocalypse by means (I) of divinely given explanations of their meaning contained the books themselves, and (2) by the events of history. The first of these works, published in 1899, is entitled "A Kay to the Apocalypse, or the seven divinely given Interpretations of symbolic prophecy." The second is the present work. In the first of these I have shown that as God has graciously given us His own all-wise and infallible explanations of the meaning of certain leading and determinative portions of the symbolical prophecies in the book of Daniel and the Apocalypse, no interpretation of these prophecies can be secure and trustworthy which does not rest on these divine explanations, and employ them as keys to unlock the meaning of the prophecies as a whole.

"
The seven divinely given interpretations of Daniel and the Apocalypse are the following:
I. The interpretation of the vision of he great image of Daniel 2.
II. The interpretation of the vision of the great tree in Daniel 4.
III. The interpretation of the handwriting on the wall of Belshazzar's Palace in Daniel 5.
IV. The interpretation of the ram and he-goat in Daniel 8.
V. The interpretation of the four wild beast kingdoms, and of the kingdom of the Son of Man, in Daniel 7.
VI. The interpretation of the seven stars, and seven candlesticks in Revelation 1.
VII. The interpretation of the woman "Babylon the great," and of the seven-headed, ten-horned beast that carried her, in Revelation 17.

"Concerning the last of these interpretations I have shown that "of all the visions in the prophetic part of the Apocalypse (chaps. vi-xxii), that of Babylon and the beast in chap. xvii, is the only one divinely interpreted;" and that through the interpretation of this vision a door is opened to the understanding of the rest of the prophecy.
(1) The woman is interpreted as signifying the city of Rome.
(2) The city is represented as sitting on "seven hills," the well known seven hills of Rome.
(3) The "many waters" over which she rules are interpreted as "peoples, and multitudes, and nations and tongues."
(4) The wild beast which sustains and carries her--the ten horned wild beast of Daniel's prophecies, the fourth of his four Gentile kingdoms, the kingdom of Rome--is interpreted in detail.
(a) It seven heads are interpreted to represent ruling powers. Of these it is expressly stated "five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come." Thus the sixth head of the wild beast power which carried the harlot is stated to have been in existence when the Apocalypse was written; and must necessarily therefore refer to the government of the Caesars, as then represented by the Emperor Domitian. This locates the visions of the Apocalypse as relating to Roman and Christian history.
(b) The ten horns are interpreted as ten kingdoms, then future, into which the empire should be divided. These horns, or kingdoms first submit to the harlot city, and then rise against her and "make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire."

"As to the use of this central interpreted vision to explain the other visions of the Apocalypse I have pointed out that there are three visions in the Apocalypse of the ten horned wild beast power.
The first in chapter 12.
The second in chapter 13.
The third in chapter 17.
(1) That the interpretation of one of these in chapter 17, determines the meaning of all three.
(2)
That these three visions of the wild beast power represent successive stages in the history of the Roman Empire, as first under the government of its seven heads; secondly under the government of its ten horns, for in the prophecy the crowns are transferred from the heads to the horns, and thirdly as carrying, and then casting off and destroying, the harlot Babylon.
(3) That the story of Babylon and the Beast occupies the largest and most central part of the Apocalyptic prophecy, being referred to in no less than ten successive chapters: Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.
(4) That to the visions relating to the Roman Empire under its revived eighth head prophetic times are attached representing--
1. The period of the sun-clothed woman in the wilderness (chap xii).
2. The period of the rule of the eighth head of the wild beast (chap xiii).
3. The period during which the outer temple court is trodden under foot by the Gentiles (chap xi).
4. The period during which the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth (chap. xi).

"These four periods are manifestly the same period stated in three forms, as days, months, and "times," or years--1,260 days; forty-two months, and three and one-half "times," or years; and are to be interpreted on the year-day scale; a scale recognized in both the law and the prophets; the scale on which the "seventy weeks" to Messiah are universally interpreted; a scale justified by the course of chronology of Christian history, and confirmed by the discoveries of astronomy as to the cyclical character of the prophetic times.

"
The interpretation of the Apocalypse thus reached is in harmony with that of the book of Daniel, and links both prophecies with one and the same series of events--the course of five kingdoms, the temporal kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and the eternal kingdom of God. The Apocalypse is simply the story told in advance of the last two kingdoms of Daniel's prophecy; the story of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, and of the rise and establishment of the kingdom of God."

End of quote.

Next time will not be a lengthy quote, but the above lays out fairly clearly the historicist approach to Revelation, and will give a firm footing to any who wish to pursue further serious study of the book. Amen.

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