The Revelation of St. John the Divine

by A. H. Ames

We are certainly not compelled, and it may seriously be questioned whether we are allowed, to interpret the concluding chapters of the Apocalypse as a vision of the future heaven which awaits the just, of the glorified and celestial state of believers who have passed through the trials of earth and have entered into their final reward. The probabilities are very strong that it is rather the vision of a redeemed and purified earth, the victory which shall result here from the complete ascendancy of Christ, which is presented to our faith and hope. This interpretation of the vision would give consistency and unity to the book. It would account for the discrimination which is certainly made between the “city” and the nations which “walk in the light thereof,” and also for the statement that the leaves of the tree of life are “for the healing of the nations;” and it is confirmed by the fact that in his first epistle, which was probably written subsequently to the Apocalypse, John declared that it had not been revealed or made manifest to him at that time what we shall be when Christ shall be manifested to us in his heavenly glory (1 John iii, 2)—a statement hardly to be reconciled with truth if the vision of the Apocalypse is to be taken as a revelation of the heavenly state.

The careful student will not fail to observe that upon all questions relating to the life beyond the grave the Bible preserves a marked reticence; nor is there any more impressive evidence of its divinity than this. To gratify a curiosity which might easily become morbid is no part of its object and might defeat its more practical purpose. While, therefore, it shows us the rent veil and opens the curtain sufficiently to reveal to us a world lying beyond, it does not allow us to penetrate further or uncover to us the mysteries hidden therein. It is enough for us to know that a way leads from the holy place to the holy of holies, and that Christ is that way, the life of the world beyond as he is of this, and the truth and reality of both alike. It is not certain that a revelation to us of the glories of the celestial state would realize to us the satisfaction we anticipated. Even were a revelation made to us in terms which we were able to grasp and comprehend, that which would be blissful to our glorified and transformed faculties might not seem so to our earthly ones, and the revelation might become rather a stumbling-block than a stimulus. We know that the prophecies concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament were not only obscure, but even seemed to involve contradictions, which, however, his advent in the flesh explained and reconciled. This may be the case also in regard to the future state of the blessed. And God is no less merciful, doubtless, in what he withholds than in what he imparts.

It is the ideal kingdom of Christ here in its perfect and completed form, and not the glorified realm above, which John so exquisitely describes. The imagery he uses to adumbrate it may be glowing, but it is not beyond what may be gathered, though in less poetic dress, from other parts of the Scriptures. Even should it be conceded that the picture is simply an ideal one, a dream of beauty not meant to be realized, in fact, something the attainment of which lies beyond the possibilities of this mortal life, still the presentation to us of the perfect state can not be without its uses of help and comfort.

But it was not the cast of John’s mind to be pleased with imagined fancies. It has been well said (in Guesses at Truth) that “in character, in affection, the ideal is the only real.” It is not without reason that John has so elaborately described the agencies with which Christ has so amply endowed his Church and his disciples, and which are sufficient, if rightly used, to reduce to actual experience all that is portrayed as ideal.

In one of those graphic sketches which connect the Apocalypse so closely with the gospels John convinces us that it is fact, and not fancy, which has been engaging his pen. At the beginning of his ministry upon earth Christ, we are told, was taken to “an exceeding high mountain,” whence “all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,” were shown him; and Satan said to him, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” From this temptation the Master recoiled with indignant rebuke. Instead thereof, he chose deliberately the path of suffering and privation, the path that led to the garden and the cross, to Gethsemane and Calvary. With full appreciation of all it involved, he took the cup put into his hands by the Father. In the closing scenes of the Apocalypse the battle is supposed to have been fought, the conflict has ceased, and now John himself stands, as Christ had stood, upon “a great and high mountain;” and, behold, there was shown him “that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” The cross has conquered, and the kingdoms of the earth have become the possession of our Lord and of his Christ. And he who himself overcame the world has given assurance to all his followers, however humble, that they, too, may be victors.

Theories of the Church and kingdom of Christ, definitions of their nature and mission, abound. Many have taken on them to specify the notes or characteristic marks by which the true Church may be identified. It cannot, therefore, fail of interest or profit to learn what the holy St. John, the inspired apostle who leaned on the bosom of Jesus, has to say of the tests by which we may try the spirits to see whether they are of God. Under the veil of figure and metaphor, we have the profound and long-studied conviction of one who was competent to decide, and to whom the wisest of mankind may look up with reverence for instruction. Nor need anyone have difficulty in determining for himself whether the kingdom of Christ finds its realization in his own soul, or long hesitate in identifying the true Church of Christ, which is simply the kingdom of Christ ruling in society.

1. The Distinctive Features of the Kingdom.—The first mark of the kingdom upon which John lays stress is that it is supernatural in its origin. The holy city that he saw descended “out of heaven from God.” It came “down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” It is not the resultant of any process of development or growth from a prior state. Whatever preparation may precede and make ready a basis for its reception, the kingdom itself is inaugurated by the direct and personal agency of the Holy Spirit. Whatever instrumentalities the Holy Ghost may use as his media, his is the undivided quickening power. In this declaration the writer of the Apocalypse and the author of the fourth gospel are in agreement. It is he who records the words of the Lord Jesus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John iii, 5).

Another feature of this kingdom is that its mission lies specifically in the realm of divine things. It has “the glory of God.” The name of the city is, “The Lord is there” (Ezekiel xlviii, 35). Its God is its glory. It is God’s witness in nature and to men of a power above and beyond nature and man. There are natural means and agencies endowed by the Creator to carry forward earthly work; but he has planted the kingdom in the midst of mankind, and its one great business is to testify of him. For the doing of this work the Church is accountable. In whatever other tasks the Church may engage or whatever methods it may employ in fulfilling its mission, its one supreme office and distinct characteristic is to bear witness to a divine presence and a divine power in the world. “In his temple doth everyone speak of his glory.” All art, ritual, discipline, philanthropy, and economies that do not directly lead to God, and have not for their purpose to emphasize the need, the presence, and the inward experience of the supernatural, are aside from the purpose of the kingdom and below its ideal.

A third mark of the kingdom is that it has to do primarily with the religious faculties. As the distinction between nature and the supernatural is permanent and ineffaceable, so the Church and the world can never be made to coincide, however widely the Church may be extended or however thoroughly the world may be permeated by the spirit of the Church. “The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light” of the new Jerusalem, “the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it;” but the distinction between it and them exists and abides. It will be as true in the last days as when our Lord first spoke the words, “My kingdom is not of this world.” However omnipotent and omnipresent God may be in nature and the universe, he can never be made identical with them; and, however thoroughly they may be penetrated by his Spirit and come to perfect accord with him, they can never be so lifted up as to rival or supersede his supremacy. And, although common life and work may be sanctified by being done in the spirit of Christ, and religious life may flow out from the central source through all the ordinary and natural channels of our being, the religious and the secular can never be made one. “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;” but the discharge of earthly duties and the reformation of earthly conditions can never exhaust the obligations of man. There will still remain those relations to the supernatural of whose existence and sovereignty it is the preëminent mission of the Church to testify. The kingdom of God is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

2. The Central Principle of the Kingdom.—The central figure in this kingdom is Christ crucified. It is the Lamb around whom all the imagery of the apostle’s description gathers. The light—luminary, rather—of the kingdom was “like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” That this refers to Christ seems probable from Revelation iv, 3, where it is said that he that sat upon the throne “was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone,” and is further confirmed by Revelation xxi, 23, where the Lamb is said to be “the light” of the city. Moreover, it is said, “The first foundation was jasper,” which is but confirmatory of what Peter had said in the presence of John to the “rulers, and elders, and scribes:” “This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other.” (Acts iv, 11, 12.)