conformity of the church to the world she loses her children; they wander away from her communion, and become identified with the world, as we see in thousands of instances. Indeed, it cannot be doubted but that, if she had kept her children, as in the martyr age, when it was as certain that the children of Christians would be Christians as that the children of Jews would be Jews, her numbers would by this time have exceeded that of all other religions. But the loss which the church suffers by this bondage is most fully represented by the captivity in Babylon, from which only a very small remnant ever returned; all the rest, including ten out of the twelve tribes, having been swallowed up by the world, so that nothing has ever been heard of them to this day. And the object for which the captives were at length delivered was, that they might devote themselves wholly to the service of God, which they were not free to do under their Egyptian and Babylonish masters (Ex. ix. 1). Moreover, in all these cases, deliverance came at last by the most fearful judgments upon the world-powers: by the destruction of Sodom; by the plagues upon Egypt, including the slaughter of the firstborn, and the overthrow of Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea ; by the capture of Babylon, and the subversion of her empire, when it passed to the Medes and Persians under Cyrus the great, who set free the children of the captivity. And thus, as predicted in these types and in all the prophetic Scriptures on this subject, deliverance from subjection and bondage to the world will come to the church of these last times; i. e. by such judgments upon the world-power as are typified by the destruction of Sodom, the Egyptian plagues, and the overthrow of Babylon; and such as will make the Lord's people to know that they cannot continue to identify themselves with the world, nor drink of the maddening cup of its fornication, without perishing with it. Yet, for those who are the true people of God, this deliverance is sure to come at last; for the assurance of it is given by this angel flying in midheaven, and proclaiming with his great voice, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great,' and in the subsequent visions, where her overthrow and utter destruction are particularly described, and where the church comes forth out of her, as the free and honored 'wife of the Lamb' (Rev. xviii. 4), as 'a bride adorned for her husband' (xxi. 10). But surely this deliverance will not come until the church shall be made to know that she is in bondage, and to feel it as an intolerable burden, and groan under it, and cry mightily unto God for His interposition and the outstretching of His almighty arm in her behalf. For Lot could not be delivered from Sodom until he was 'sore distressed by the lascivious life of the wicked; for that righteous man, dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, tormented his righteous soul from day to day with their lawless deeds' (2 Pet. ii. 7-8); then the angel of the Lord came down, and drew him out of the city from its impending destruction. So, also, there was no deliverance from the bondage in Egypt, until the people had come to feel that it was intolerable, and cried unto God for His interposition, when His plagues fell upon their oppressors, and set them free. In like manner, the exiles in Babylon could not return to rebuild their holy city and temple, until their captivity had become so grievous as to render abominable to their souls the idolatry which had brought it upon them. Hence the overthrow of this great antichristian world-power, of which Sodom and Egypt and Babylon are the apocalyptic symbols, and which now dominates in the church, is not to be expected, until she shall come to groan under her bondage, and cry day and night unto God for deliverance, having attained to some adequate appreciation of the apostle's warning: "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him " (1 John ii. 15). For in the judgment of charity, what multitudes of professed Christians must these words exclude! But when their full meaning shall come to be realized; when this judgment upon Babylon shall be executed; then Lot will flee out of Sodom, nor be tempted afterwards to drink of the wine of incest with his own daughters; then the Israel of God will go forth out of Egypt, not to set up golden calves, but to devote themselves wholly to his service; then the exiles in Babylon will return to rebuild their holy city and temple, which will never more be profaned by the idolatry of the world, XXXIII PRE-ANNOUNCEMENT OF JUDGMENT UPON THE WORSHIPPERS OF THE BEAST UPON THE CHURCH CORRUPT ED BY THE WORLD XIV 9-12 This terrible vision has a close connection with the preceding, and a still closer one with that in which antichristian ecclesiastical power is symbolized as the beast out of the earth (252): for its main object is to show that the worshippers of that beast, and of the image which it causes to be set up in the likeness of the former one (254), i. e. those in the church who have been fatally corrupted by the world, do perish with it. Hence the vision includes, though in a subordinate manner, the judgment and punishment of the ungodly world. 9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [the] mark on his forehead, or on his hand, 10 he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled strong in the cup of His indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb: II and the smoke of their torment goeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest by day or by night who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 12 Here is the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This angel is a 'third' with reference to the two that have preceded him in his flight through midheaven, i. e. the angel of the everlasting gospel (267), and the one that has announced the fall of Babylon (274). His great voice has the same significance. This beast is the one that represents antichristan ecclesiastical power, or the church fatally corrupted by the world, as is evident from the mention of his mark and his image (255), i. e. the image which he causes to be set up to the former beast (254). Consequently those designated as his worshippers are primarily those who are connected with the church. But that there is here also a secondary reference to the ungodly world appears from the following considerations: (1) From the words, 'he also shall drink,' where 'also' may be taken in the sense, together with Babylon in the preceding vision (274): (2) 'All that dwell upon the earth,' except the true people of God, are caused to worship the former beast, and the image of him (254) which this one sets up: (3) The authority which causes men to worship him is originally that of Satan, who is worshipped by all the earth, with the same exception (247). Thus we have a synthesis, as it were, of the dragon and the beast out of the sea with this one out of the earth, and consequently his worshippers, though primarily church members, must include also the ungodly world; and this view is confirmed by the nature of their punishment, which is in no wise peculiar to worldlings in the church. This dread punishment, as proclaimed by the angel in his flight through midheaven, is intended to awaken the most solemn attention of all mankind. The utmost powers of human language are taxed to express its severity. For the words which I have rendered 'mingled strong' are literally 'mingled unmixed,' in allusion to wine unmixed with water and mingled with drugs to increase its intoxicating strength. Similar expressions concerning 'the wine of the wrath of God' are frequent in the prophets, of which the following is an example: "For thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto me: Take the cup of the wine of this fury at my hand, And cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it: Because of the sword that I will send among them" (Jer. xxv. 15-16). Doubtless they are all highly figurative, yet this does by no means detract from their significance or force, but, on the contrary, greatly increases it. For figures of speech are mostly resorted to where literal expressions would be feeble and inadequate: and the intense energy of such figures may be evinced by the following from a great master of language, where, in order to express the enormous devastation wrought by the northern barbarians in southern Europe, he says, 'The Goth ravened,' thus, by one word, comparing it to that of an army of lions, or other beasts of prey, let loose upon human settlements. Here, then, as everywhere else, the wrath and indignation of God, and the torment of fire and brimstone, are figures of speech, which are resorted to because no literal expressions can adequately set forth the dread reality: and the questions which they force upon every sincere seeker after the truth are, What do they signify? What impressions are they intended to make upon our minds? What is that dread reality which is adequate to justify their use? Of course, the wrath and indignation of God are intended to express with the utmost possible energy His justice, i. e. His personal opposition to, and abhorrence of all sin and wrong, and His unalterable determination to punish them, where they are found incorrigible, as they deserve that which is as much more to be feared than the rage of a man as God's omnipotence exceeds human power. It is further compared to undiluted and drugged wine, to denote that it is to be executed upon the objects of it with the utmost severity, or severity untempered with mercy; and the effects of such wine are taken to represent that derangement of the faculties of the soul which this maddening torment produces. To all this are added the images of fire and brimstone; and can these be reasonably understood to signify anything less than a torment of inconceivable severity, as intolerable to the immortal soul as these substances would be to the body? Otherwise would not these images, both here and as employed by our Lord in the Gospels (Mat. xxv. 41), be altogether unjustifiable? This punishment, moreover, is to be inflicted 'before the holy angels and before the Lamb'; which signifies that they, however much they may deplore and lament over it, as the Lord wept over Jerusalem, do yet approve of it as most just and necessary. |