A Brief Commentary on the Apocalypse

by Sylvester Bliss

His being forbidden by the cloud-robed angel, to write what they uttered—while he was commanded to “seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book” (22:10),—shows that their utterances were not heaven-inspired, and constituted no part of “the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ,” which John bare record of.

The subsequent oath of the angel, by Him who liveth forever, that “the time is not yet,” shows that those thunders, however erroneous in their form manner and connection with other errors, had respect to some great event foretold in Scripture; but which the thunders had antedated and presented in an unscriptural form.

His further announcement that it would be fulfilled under the sounding of the “seventh trumpet,” and that then the mystery of God should be finished in the manner foretold to his servants the prophets, shows that the great event, the time of which was “not yet,”—i.e., under the sixth trumpet, was the coming of the kingdom of God—the fifth universal empire; that at a period anterior to the time when it might rationally be expected, it would be proclaimed in a form repugnant to the teachings of the prophets; and that when thus heralded, it would be met by the party uttering the heaven-inspired truths, with the denial [pg 111] that the time had arrived, and by arguments to show its true nature and epoch, under the seventh trumpet.

The command to take and eat the little book, shows that its contents were such as the soul might feed on; which should be sweet to the believer's taste, but would subject him to bitter persecution. And the announcement that they were to prophesy again before many nations and peoples and tongues and kings, marks this as the commencement of an era when the Gospel should again begin to go forth into distant lands.

All of the above particulars harmonize in the time of the reformation of Luther in the sixteenth century, and with no other epoch. The great truths then promulgated, of which “justification by faith” was the cardinal one, electrified the whole world, as the loud roaring of a lion would startle the passer-by. These were immediately responded to by the multitudinous errors of the Anabaptists and others, who thought to set up the kingdom of God in this world, and before the resurrection, by putting to death the ungodly and sparing only the saints.

As in all efforts for good Satan is careful to attempt a counterfeit, or to mingle impure elements to the injury of the truth, so in the Reformation there were false reformers. Thomas Munzer, and others, in 1525, incited vast numbers on the borders of the Danube to [pg 112] make physical war on the Papal ecclesiastics. He denounced Luther, also, with the same violence that he did the Pope. In his mad attempt to slay the ungodly, he took possession of Muhlhausen, appointed a new city council, pillaged the houses of the rich, proclaimed a community of goods, and committed various excesses; but they were finally defeated in a pitched battle, with a loss of from five thousand to seven thousand killed. Others succeeded him, teaching that God spake to them in person, instructing them how to act. They professed the most extravagant doctrines, setting aside both Luther and the Bible. The former did not go near far enough for them; and the latter was in their view insufficient for man's instruction, who could only be taught of God. They taught that the world was to be immediately devastated; and no priest or ungodly person be left alive; and that then the kingdom of God would commence, and the saints possess the earth. Those who adhered to Luther, united with him in bearing a faithful testimony against such extravagances, adhered to the written word, denounced new revelations, and showed from the Bible that Antichrist was to be overthrown by the personal advent of Christ, and not by the sword of man. The following extracts are from Mr. Lord:

“The pretences of the Anabaptists to inspiration were in like manner denounced by [pg 113] Melancthon. ‘The Anabaptists, infatuated by the devil, have boasted a new species of sanctity, as though they had left the earth, and ascended to the skies; and given out, moreover, that they enjoy extraordinary inspiration. But as the pretence was hypocritical, and designed merely to subserve appetite and ambition, they soon plunged into debauchery, and then excited seditions, and undertook to establish a New Jerusalem, as other enthusiasts have often attempted. A like tragedy was formerly acted at Pepuza in Phrygia, which fanatical prophets denominated the new Jerusalem.’

“He also refuted by the Scriptures, the expectation of the Anabaptists of the immediate establishment of Christ's millennial kingdom. He regarded the term Antichrist as denoting both the Mohammedan empire and the Papacy, and held that they were not to be overthrown till the time of the resurrection of the dead, and that a considerable period was to pass before that event. ‘God showed to Daniel a series of monarchies and kingdoms, which it is certain has already run to the end. Four monarchies have passed away. The cruel kingdom of the Turks, which arose out of the fourth, still remains, and as it is not to equal the Roman in power, and has certainly, therefore, already nearly reached its height, must soon decline, and then will dawn the day in which the dead shall be recalled to [pg 114] life.’ He then repeats the saying ascribed to Elias, that six thousand years were to pass before the advent of Christ; two thousand before the law, two under the law, and two under the gospel; and proceeds to show that four hundred and fifty-eight years were, therefore, to intervene before the advent of the Redeemer, the destruction of Antichrist, and the establishment of the kingdom of the saints. ‘It is known that Christ was born about the end of the fourth millenary,[1] and one thousand five hundred and forty-two years have since revolved. We are not, therefore [in 1542], far from the end.’

“These views corresponding so conspicuously with the symbol, continued to be repeated by a crowd of writers, till at the distance of sixty-seven years from the death of Melancthon, the celebrated Joseph Mede published his ‘Clavis Apocalyptica,’ in which he showed from the coincidence of the periods of the wild beast and the witnesses, that the advent of the Redeemer, and the destruction of the anti-Christian powers were not to be expected until twelve hundred and sixty years had passed from the rise of the ten kingdoms, and that near one hundred of them, therefore, were still to revolve. As that period expired and the knowledge of the prophecy advanced, the [pg 115] catastrophe of the wild beast was referred to a later time. Many recent expositors regard the twelve hundred and sixty years as having reached their end in 1792; and most refer the fall of the anti-Christian powers to the last half of the present, or the beginning of the next century.”—Ex. of Apoc., pp. 238-240.

All the vagaries of the various sects of heretics were connected with an expectation of the immediate establishment of Christ's kingdom. That the seven thunders gave utterance to such an expectation, is evident from the response of the angel, when he lifted up his hand to heaven and with the solemnity of an oath, by Him who liveth forever, affirmed that “the time should not yet be;” but that “in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he delays to sound,[2] the secret of God will be finished, as he hath announced to his servants the prophets.” Why such an annunciation at this stage of the vision? It must be to correct a misapprehension which would exist at a corresponding time in its fulfilment, respecting the immediate appearance of the kingdom. Thus did Paul correct the Thessalonian brethren, when he wrote to them in his second epistle not to be shaken in mind, as that the day of the Lord was then impending, 2 Th. 2:2.