The Commentary | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 44.

The Commentary.

NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON.

John's Vision of Christ.

WHY were the seven particular churches chosen that are mentioned? For the reason, doubtless, that in the names of these churches, according to the definitions of the words, are brought out the religious features of those periods of the gospel age which they respectively represent.

FOR these reasons, we understand by "the seven churches," not merely the seven literal churches of Asia which went by the names mentioned, but seven periods of the Christian church, from the days of the apostles to the close of probation.

"THE Source of blessing." "From Him which is, and which was, and which is to come," or is to be,—an expression which signifies complete eternity, past and future, and can be applicable to God the Father only. This language, we believe, is never applied to Christ. He is spoken of as another person, in distinction from the being thus described.

"THE seven spirits." On the subject of the seven spirits, Thompson remarks: "That is, from the Holy Spirit, denominated the seven spirits, because seven is a sacred and perfect number; not thus named as denoting interior plurality, but the fullness and perfection of his gifts and operations."

"AND from Jesus Christ." Then Christ is not the person who, in the verse before, is designated as "Him which is, and which was, and which is to come." Some of the chief characteristics which pertain to Christ are here mentioned. He is

"The Faithful Witness." Whatever he bears witness to, is true. Whatever he promises he will surely fulfill.

"THE First Begotten of the dead." This expression is parallel to 1 Cor. 15: 20, 23; Heb. 1: 6; Rom. 8: 29, and Col. 1: 15, 18, where we find such expressions applied to Christ, as, "the first-fruits of them that slept," "the first-born among many brethren," "the first-born of every creature," and "the first-born from the dead." But we do not think that these expressions denote that he was the first in point of time to be raised from the dead; for others were raised before him. That would be a very unimportant point; but he was the chief and central figure of all who have come up from the grave; for it was by virtue of Christ's coming work and resurrection that any were raised before his time.

"THE Prince of the kings of the earth." The highest names named in this world, are the princes, kings, emperors, and potentates of earth. But Christ is placed far above them. He is seated with his Father upon the throne of universal dominion (Rev. 3: 21), and ranks equally with him in the overruling and disposition of the nations and affairs of earth.

IN a more particular sense Christ is to be Prince of the kings of the earth when he takes his own throne, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, when they are given by the Father into his hands, and he comes forth bearing upon his vesture the title of "King of kings, and Lord of lords," to dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Chap. 19: 16.

"UNTO Him that loved us." We have thought that earthly friends loved us, a father, a mother, brothers, and sisters, or bosom friends, but we see that no love is worthy of the name compared with Christ's. And the following sentence adds intensity of meaning to the previous words: "and washed us from our sins in his own blood." What love is this! "Greater love," says the apostle, "hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." But Christ has commended his love to us in that he died for us while we were yet sinners. But more than this—"hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father."

"HE cometh with clouds." Here John carries us forward to the second advent of Christ in glory, the climax and crowning event of his intervention in behalf of this fallen world. Once he came in weakness, now in power; once in humility, now in glory. He comes in clouds in like manner as he ascended. Acts 1: 9, 11.

"EVERY eye shall see him;" that is, all who are alive at the time of his coming. We know of no second coming of Christ that shall be as the stillness of midnight, or take place only in the desert or the secret chamber. He comes not as a thief in the sense of stealing in stealthily and quietly upon the world, and purloining goods to which he has no right. But he comes to take to himself his dearest treasure, his sleeping and living saints, whom he has purchased with his own precious blood; whom he has wrested from the power of death in fair and open conflict; and for whom his coming will be no less open and triumphant too. It will be with the brilliancy and splendor of the lightning as it shines from the east to the west. Matt. 24: 27. It will be with a sound of a trumpet that shall pierce to earth's lowest depths, and with a mighty voice that shall wake the sainted sleepers from their dusty beds. Matt. 24: 31, margin; 1 Thess. 4: 16. He will come upon the wicked as a thief, only because they persistently shut their eyes to the tokens of his approach, and will not believe the declarations of his word that he is at the door.

"EVEN so, Amen." Though this coming of Christ is to the wicked a scene of terror, it is to the righteous a scene of joy. "When the world's distress comes, then the saints' rest comes." That coming which is with flaming fire, and for the purpose of taking vengeance on the wicked, is to recompense rest to all them that believe. 2 Thess. 1: 6-10. Every friend and lover of Christ will hail every declaration and every token of his return, as glad tidings of great joy.

FOR the view that by "Lord's day" is meant the first day of the week, a view by far the most generally entertained, we inquire for the proof. What evidence have we for this assertion? The text itself does not define the term Lord's day; hence if it means the first day of the week we must look elsewhere in the Bible for the proof that that day of the week is ever so designated. The only other inspired writers that speak of the first day at all, are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul; and they speak of it simply as the first day of the week. They never speak of it in a manner to distinguish it above any other of the six working days. And this is the more remarkable, viewed from the popular standpoint, as three of them speak of it at the very time when it is said to have become the Lord's day by the resurrection of the Lord upon it, and two of them mention it some thirty years after that event.

BY Lord's day is meant the Sabbath of the Lord. And this of itself is susceptible of the clearest proof: 1. When God gave to man in the beginning six days of the week for labor, he expressly reserved the seventh day to himself, placed his blessing upon it, and claimed it as his holy day. 2. Moses told Israel in the Wilderness of Sin, on the sixth day of the week, "To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord." We come to Sinai, where the great Lawgiver proclaimed his moral precepts in awful grandeur; and in that supreme code, he thus lays claim to his hallowed day: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." By the prophet Isaiah, about eight hundred years later, God spoke as follows: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on MY HOLY DAY, . . . then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord," etc. We come down to New Testament times, and He who is one with the Father, declares expressly, "The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Can any man deny that that day is the Lord's day, of which he has emphatically declared that he is the Lord? Thus we see that whether it be the Father or the Son whose title is involved, no other day can be called the Lord's day but the Sabbath of the great Creator.

ONE more thought, and we leave this point: There is in this dispensation one day distinguished above the other days of the week as the Lord's day. How completely does this great fact disprove the claim put forth by some that there is no Sabbath in this dispensation, but that all days are alike. And by calling it the Lord's day, the apostle has given us, near the close of the first century, apostolic sanction for the observance of the only day which can be called the Lord's day, which is the seventh day of the week.

"THE Son of man." The central and all-attractive figure of the scene now opened before John's vision, is the majestic form of one like the Son of man, representing Christ. The description here given of him with his flowing robe, his hair white, not with age, but with the brightness of heavenly glory, his flaming eyes, his feet glowing like molten brass, and his voice as the sound of many waters, cannot be excelled for grandeur and sublimity. Overcome by the presence of this august Being, and perhaps under a vivid sense of his own unworthiness, John fell at his feet as dead; but a comforting hand is laid upon him, and a voice of sweet assurance tells him to fear not. It is equally the privilege of Christians to-day to feel the same hand laid upon them to strengthen and comfort in hours of trial and affliction, and to hear the same voice saying unto them, Fear not.

BUT the most cheering assurance in all these words of consolation, is the declaration of this exalted One who is alive forevermore, that he is the arbiter of death and the grave. "I have," he says, "the keys of hell [the grave] and death." Death is a conquered tyrant. He may ply his gloomy labors age after age, of gathering to the grave the precious of the earth, and gloat for a season over his apparent triumph. But he is performing a fruitless task; for the key to his dark prison-house has been wrenched from his grasp, and now rests in the hands of a mightier than he. He is compelled to deposit his trophies in a region over which another has absolute control; and this one is the unchanging Friend and the pledged Redeemer of his people. Then grieve not for the righteous dead; they are in safe keeping. An enemy for a while takes them away; but a friend holds the key to the place of their temporary confinement.—Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation.