Category: Religion/Spirituality

A Brief Commentary on the Apocalypse

The Apocalypse should be regarded as a peculiarly interesting portion of scripture: a blessing being promised those who read, hear, and keep the things which are written therein. It has been subjected to so many contradictory interpretations, that any attempt to comprehend its...

Chapters

20. Chapter 20

“Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb,” 19:9. Truly are they blessed; for “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall th...

19. Chapter 19

All the Protestant princes of Germany denied the assumptions of the Pope; and the powers of western and northern Europe, one after another, denied their allegiance to him. In 17...

22. Chapter 22

The New Testament also teaches a resurrection of the just, in distinction from that of the wicked. Paul says, while all are to be made alive, that it will be “every man in his o...

3. Chapter 3

Ephesus was a large, idolatrous city, “a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which,” as they claimed, “fell down from Jupiter,” Acts 19:35. The gospel was fi...

14. Chapter 14

The standing of the Lamb on Mount Zion, symbolizes an epoch when Christ shall assume a corresponding relation to his people. He there appears in person; and “when Christ who is...

4. Chapter 4

To receive the name of God, is to be recognized as belonging to God. As masters designated their servants by branding their name on them, or by some peculiar mark, so the childr...

16. Chapter 16

As a woman clothed with sunbeams and crowned with stars (Rev. 12:1), and a city illuminated with the glory of God (Rev. 21:10), are each symbols of the true church, correspondin...

5. Chapter 5

The altar, symbolizes the atonement made by Christ for sin; and, consequently, the position of the souls of the martyrs under it, indicates their reliance on him for an inherita...

2. Chapter 2

Each portion of Scripture respecting any subject, must be considered in connection with all the Scriptures that refer to the same subject.—_Compare_, for example, Dan. 2:34, 35,...

21. Chapter 21

His being bound and confined must symbolize his dejection to a position where he can have no possible influence over the nations during the time he is bound. It can be no _parti...

9. Chapter 9

The same hour, is the time of the slaughter of the witnesses. Its epoch was to be marked by a great political revolution, which, in the Apocalypse, is symbolized by an earthquak...

15. Chapter 15

His position on a cloud, indicates the arrival of the period when he is to be manifested in mid-heaven: “Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him,” 1:7. “One li...

6. Chapter 6

“The correspondence of nations was, in that age, so imperfect and precarious, that the revolutions of the North might escape the knowledge of the court of Ravenna, till the dark...

10. Chapter 10

The woman appeared in the symbolic heavens anterior to the dragon. Prior to the birth of Christ, the church was conspicuous and honored. The sacrifices which smoked on Jewish al...

13. Chapter 13

“For this reason we have thought fit to bring to your notice the present matters of disturbance; though they are manifest and unquestionable, and always firmly held and declared...

12. Chapter 12

The wonders to be performed by it, may be as yet involved in some obscurity. But by these it is identified as the power which afterwards became the seat of the False Prophet. Wh...

11. Chapter 11

Says Mr. Elliott:—“I must not pass on without pressing on the reader’s notice this notable pre-figuration of the seclusion of Christ’s church in the wilderness, as the true and...

8. Chapter 8

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 t...

17. Chapter 17

Micaiah “saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he ma...

7. Chapter 7

The declaration that “one woe is past,” v. 12, implies an interval between that and the woe following. In a corresponding manner, the crusaders from Europe, like the successive...

18. Chapter 18

The atmosphere is not limited, like a river, or portion of the earth, to a given locality, but encircles the globe. Consequently the effect of the vial poured out on the air, wo...

1. Chapter 1

The Apocalypse should be regarded as a peculiarly interesting portion of scripture: a blessing being promised those who read, hear, and keep the things which are written therein...

23. Chapter 23

“And there came to me one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come, I will shew thee the bride, the wife of...