The Revelation Explained / An Exposition, Text by Text, of the Apocalypse of St. John

by F. G. Smith

By noticing briefly the arrangement of the temple and the purposes to which the different apartments were put, we shall be able to understand better the design of this vision. The temple proper consisted of two apartments. In the first stood the altar of incense and other things; in the second, the ark of the covenant, etc. The priests officiated in the first apartment regularly, while into the second went the high-priest alone once every year. This, Paul informs us, was a shadow of a greater and more perfect tabernacle. Heb. 9:1-11; 8:2. The altar that is mentioned and that John was to measure is a symbol of the great cardinal doctrine of the church—the atonement and mediation of Christ. He was the sacrifice made for sin, through whom we have redemption and access unto God. John was also told to measure those who worshiped therein—the officiating ministers in the sanctuary—who were thus made symbols of the ministers and the teachers in the church. To measure the temple of God, then, was to ascertain the great doctrines taught in the Scriptures and symbolized by the sanctuary, the altar, and the priests; namely, the doctrines of the New Testament concerning God as the supreme lawgiver, the atonement of Jesus Christ as the only ground for justification, and the ministers whom he appointed to officiate in his church.

These are the great principles corrupted by the Papacy. Instead of the one supreme God, we find another in the temple of God, "showing himself that he is God." Christ was not recognized as the supreme and only head of the church; but instead the Pope claimed the title of universal head and legislated supreme, while his decrees and anathemas were accepted as from Jehovah himself. Christ was not regarded as the only mediator between God and man, but the virgin Mary and the saints were exalted to share the mediatorial throne, the mother being more honored than the Son. Penance, counting of beads, works of supererogation, were believed to be more effectual in obtaining forgiveness of sin than living faith in our only Redeemer. Finally, in place of the humble ministers of Christ whom he appointed to officiate in his church, there were haughty lords and rulers, making the most extravagant claims to power and authority over the minds and consciences of men. The court of the temple was the space outside of the sanctuary occupied by the congregation while the worship within was conducted by the priests. John was told to leave this out and measure it not; for it was given to the Gentiles to tread under foot, or profane, for the space of forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days. In the estimation of a Jew, the Gentiles were all idolaters and outside of God's covenant favor. As a symbol, then, we are to understand that the great body of worshipers thus brought to view are not the true children of God at all, but are, as it were, uncircumcised, idolatrous Gentiles, having no connection whatever with the great head of the church and no part in the covenant of his mercy. The whole city of Jerusalem was to be given over to this profane multitude and by them desecrated for forty-two months, denoting that this great company of worshipers was to constitute the visible, external church during the period specified. It is as though the city of Jerusalem were occupied by the idolatrous heathen, and the Jews driven out as aliens. These Gentiles, then, were to constitute the one great (so-called) universal church—the Church of Rome.

Forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days, are symbolic time, signifying twelve hundred and sixty years, during which time the power of apostasy was to reign supreme over the minds of men. The same period is also referred to frequently in subsequent chapters. It is necessary, then, for us to ascertain at what period of time the church was given over to a profane multitude that was not the true people of God. Some have supposed that this must refer to the time when Popery became fully established. Such, however, could not be the case (although the time-period includes that important event); for the power of apostasy was greatly developed centuries before the final supremacy of the Popes was established, and was necessary in order to prepare the way for their exaltation. The Popes obtained their authority by degrees. In A.D. 606 the emperor Phocas conferred the title "Universal Bishop" upon the Pope of Rome. In A.D. 756 the Pope became a temporal sovereign. Yet the power of Papal usurpation did not reach the summit until the reign of the impious Hildebrand, who succeeded to the Popedom in A.D. 1073, under the title of Gregory VII. But according to the symbols before us, we must look for a period not so much when the Popes were enabled to definitely enforce their arrogant claims, as when the ministry became corrupted and when the inhabitants of the city, or the devotees of the visible church, became a profane multitude entirely estranged from the covenant of promise. The usurpations of the ministry that accompanied this great change in the external church have been considered already under the symbols of [chapter VI]. This mighty transformation to a church containing nothing but uncircumcised Gentiles was fully accomplished during the latter half of the third century, from which date we must look for the true disciples of the Lord as entirely separate from the hierarchy. A few quotations from standard and ecclesiastical histories will show this important epoch in the rise of the Papacy that plunged the world into almost universal apostasy.

"The living church retiring gradually within the lonely sanctuary of a few solitary hearts, an external church was substituted in its place, and all its forms were declared to be of divine appointment. Salvation no longer flowing from the Word, which was henceforward put out of sight, the priests affirmed that it was conveyed by means of the forms they had themselves invented, and that no one could obtain it but by these channels.... The doctrine of the church and the necessity of its visible unity, which had begun to gain ground in the third century, favored the pretensions of Rome." D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, Book I, Chap. 1.

"At the end of the third century almost half the inhabitants of the Roman empire, and of several neighboring countries, professed the faith of Christ. About this time endeavors to preserve a unity of belief, and of church discipline, occasioned numberless disputes among those of different opinions, and led to the establishment of an ecclesiastical tyranny." Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge.

Concerning the Roman diocese, the Encyclopædia Britannica says, "Before the termination of the third century the office was held to be of such importance that its succession was a matter of interest to ecclesiastics living in distant sees." Vol. XIX, p. 488.

"Almost proportionate with the extension of Christianity was the decrease in the church of vital piety. A philosophizing spirit among the higher, and a wild monkish superstition among the lower orders, fast took the place in the third century of the faith and humility of the first Christians. Many of the clergy became very corrupt, and excessively ambitious. In consequence of this there was an awful defection of Christianity." Marsh's Church History, p. 185.

"We have found it almost necessary to separate, and indeed widely to distinguish the events of the two first, from those of the third century, for nearly at this point we are disposed to place the FIRST CRISIS in the internal history of the church." Waddington's Church History.

"This season of external prosperity was improved by the ministers of the church for the exertion of new claims, and the assumption of powers with which they had not been previously invested. At first these claims were modestly urged, and gradually allowed; but they laid a foundation for the encroachments which were afterwards made upon the rights of the whole Christian community, and for lofty pretensions to the right of supremacy and spiritual dominion.... Several alterations in the form of church government appear to have been introduced during the third century. Some degree of pomp was thought necessary.... The external dignity of the ministers of religion was accompanied by a still greater change in its discipline.... Many of the Jewish and Pagan proselytes ... languished in the absence of ceremonies which were naturally adapted to the taste of the unreflecting multitude, while the insolent infidel haughtily insisted upon the inanity of a religion which was not manifested by an external symbol or decoration. In order to accommodate Christianity to these prejudices, a number of rites were instituted; and while the dignified titles of the Jewish priesthood were through a compliance with the prejudices of that people, conferred upon the Christian teachers, many ceremonies were introduced which coincided with the genius of Paganism. The true gospels were taught by sensible images, and many of the ceremonies employed in celebrating the heathen mysteries were observed in the institutions of Christ, which soon in their turn obtained the name of mysteries, and served as a melancholy precedent for future innovations, and as a foundation for that structure of absurdity and superstition which deformed and disgraced the church." Rutter's History of the Church, pp. 52-56.