p. 10 | THE TIME OF THE END

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 3, 1879

THE TIME OF THE END.

THE APOCALYPSE AN UNVEILING OR UNSEALING OF PROPHECY.

That the drooping spirits of his children might not be left to faint under the long absence of the Nobleman who had gone to the far country till his enemies be made his footstool, before the beloved disciple was laid asleep in Jesus there was given (Rev. 1:2) “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.” When the Saviour was on earth he told his servants many things; but he had also (John 16:12) “yet many things to say” to them which they could not then bear; but in this Revelation to John they are shown a long series of events which were shortly to come to pass, or, literally, which were shortly to begin to come to pass, and extended down to the binding of the dragon, the resurrection, and the new creation. It will be seen, also, that this revelation comprised “times and seasons,” which, at the time of the ascension (Acts 1:7), were reserved in the Father’s own power, but which have here been given to Jesus Christ, shown unto his servants, signified by an angel to John, and written by John to the churches.

The words of this revelation are not sealed like those given to Daniel; for John was commanded (Rev. 22:10) to “seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” It was given, also, through the medium of “the appointed Heir of all things” (Heb. 1:2), “by whom God was to speak in these last days,” and who alone (Rev. 5:2) “is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof.” Not only (v. 5) hath “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals, but it is declared (1:3) that “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein.”

Thus prepared, there follows a succession of visions, which John wrote, and whose significance was communicated to him. First, we have (chap. 5) the successive loosening of the seals of a book; and, as each symbolic seal is broken, successive portions of the writing in the book become accessible, showing in the gradual manner in which the church would be enabled to understand the full import of the revelations which God has given for its instruction, and closing with the appearance of “a great multitude, which no

man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues,” which (7:9) “stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands,”—the result of the preaching of the gospel as a witness to all nations.

Then follows (chap. 8) a vision of the sounding of a succession of trumpets, marking periods which are covered by those of the seals, symbolizing events which were to transpire during those respective periods, and closing with the seventh trumpet, at the sounding of which (Rev. 11:15–18) are heard “great voices in Heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become [that] of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.” And then also is come (v. 18) “the time of the dead that they should be judged,” those who serve the Lord being rewarded, and those who destroy the earth being destroyed.

In harmony with these visions, others follow, in which is more minutely symbolized—under the imagery of a great red, seven-headed and ten-horned dragon (chap. 12), of a seven-headed, ten-horned leopard beast (chap. 13), and of a seven-headed, ten-horned scarlet-colored beast, with a woman seated on it (chap. 17), and corresponding to Daniel’s (7:7) ten-horned nondescript fourth beast,—“the fourth kingdom on the earth,” or Rome under its seven forms of united rule; its division into decemregal governments, and the period of its papal supremacy. In the connection are (11:2) the treading down of the holy city “forty and two” prophetic months (v. 3), the prophesying of the witnesses in sackcloth “a thousand two hundred and threescore” prophetic days, the fleeing of the woman into the wilderness (12:6), where she was to be fed for the same period, or (v. 14) nourished for a time and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent, the “forty and two months” (13:5) that it was to be given to the blasphemous mouth of the beast to speak blasphemy, the “five months” (9:5) that the locusts were to torment men, and (v. 15) the “hour and a day, and a month, and a year,” in which they were to have power to kill. And the whole series closes with the symbol of the destruction of Babylon, the battle of Armageddon, the new heavens and new earth, the descent of the New Jerusalem, and the establishment of “the tabernacle of God with men.”

INDIFFERENCE TO PROPHECY DISPLEASING TO JEHOVAH.

Such prophecies being committed to the church for its instruction and profit, to denominate them a sealed book, to declare their study unprofitable, or to affirm that they are incapable of being understood, is to deny that they were given for the church’s edification, or that there is a blessing pronounced on those who read and keep them; and it dishonors God, by imputing to him communications unintelligible to those to whom they are addressed. Said the apostle, Heb. 12:25, “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven.”

THE PROPHETIC PERIODS NECESSARILY OBSCURE TO THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.

The canon of Scripture being closed with the book of Revelation, and important portions of the Old Testament predictions being a sealed book till a “time” then in the distant future, the views which then prevailed, respecting the meaning of the symbolic prophecies and the nearness of the end, were necessarily somewhat indistinct and imperfect.

The symbolic nature of the prophetic periods was not perceived by the early Christians, with the exception of the seventy weeks of the 9th chapter of Daniel, which were regarded as weeks of years, both by Jews and Christians. The prophetic “days” and “times” were not supposed to be other than literal denominations of time. The prophecies of Daniel that had been fulfilled prior to the time of Josephus, are interpreted by him (in his Antiquities, B. x., ch. xi., sec. 7) in harmony with the views of modern expositors. But, in attempting to give the significance of the 2300 days—a designation of time then sealed up from the vulgar gaze—he applies them to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes; and to make them fit, he unjustifiably changes them to “one thousand two hundred and ninety-six.” And previous to the Protestant Reformation, when the seal from the prophecies began gradually to be removed, no one interpreted the prophetic “days” or “times” as symbolic periods; for the time had not come when their significancy was to be appreciated. Josephus doubtless expressed the opinion then prevalent among the Jews; and strange as it may seem, the apostate papal church still holds the same views, and some Protestant writers, who have labored to prove the end in the distant future, have followed Josephus in applying that prophecy to Antiochus—though some of them considered the 2300 days as so many whole, and some as so many half days; but in so doing, have acknowledged that they departed from the common Protestant interpretation.—The Time of the End.