Part 1

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The Opening Heavens

The Opening Heavens,

Or A Connected View Of The

Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles,

Concerning The

Opening Heavens,

Compared With

Astronomical Observations,

And Of The

Present And Future Location Of The New Jerusalem, The Paradise Of God.

By Joseph Bates

New Bedford: Press Of Benjamin Lindsey. 1846.

PREFACE

In presenting the following subject to the consideration of whom it may concern, I would here state that the two leading motives which have actuated and guided me through this absorbing subject has been--first, the truth of God to encourage and strengthen the true-believer. Second, to correct, or "rebuke" the spiritual views, (may I not say of almost all Christendom,) in respect to the appearing and kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Twenty-one years observation and experience, but more especially the last seven, in pursuit of this object, has taught me that truth is the only thing that can save the soul. But the great mass of the professed Christian world seem to pay no more regard to it than their great _Predecessor_, who said unto the Saviour "what is truth?" when he had just said to him that he "came into the world to bear witness unto the truth, and every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice." Jesus in his last prayer for his disciples asks the Father to sanctify them through the truth. "Thy word is truth." _St. John._ Again, he saith. "The Spirit is truth." The forerunner of Christ said, "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Jesus says, "I am not come to destroy the law or the prophets; but to fulfil, for verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law until all be fulfilled." _Matthew._ Then of course man is required to believe "and live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Third, thousands who have been looking for the personal appearing of the Lord Jesus from heaven in these last days, have in their disappointment about his coming, given up the only Scriptural view, and are now teaching that he has come in spirit and this is all we shall ever see of him here. One single passage from the Saviour's last words, when about to leave the world in the flesh, ought to have rectified any such mistake: "And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," meaning of course, his spirit. But I submit the subject.

Fairhaven, May 8, 1846.

Joseph Bates.

[The copy right is secured with Him that sits upon the Throne in the coming Heavenly Sanctuary. The grant to use it is unlimited. Those only are punished that abuse the right.]

THE OPENING HEAVENS.

"_Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see_ HEAVEN OPEN, _and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man_."--John i: 51.

Notwithstanding my incompetency to do justice to this momentous subject, I feel constrained to throw out my views in this public manner, for the benefit of all who feel an interest in the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to set up, and establish his "everlasting kingdom," upon this renovated earth.

I believe, according to the testimony of the "two men seen in white apparel," that "this same Jesus which was taken up _into_ Heaven will in like manner come again," (Acts i: 11) from the same place, and stand in the same place he left. (See Zach. xiv: 4.) I believe he is in the third Heaven, in Paradise, with God, the Father; (see 2 Cor. xii: 2, 4; Rev. iii: 21; Heb. i: 3, 9 and 24) that he is now about to come with the Holy CITY, THE CAPITAL of his everlasting kingdom, and locate it in the "midst" of the promised land where he was crucified. According to this view then there is but one place in the heavens for this CITY to come from. A spiritual exposition of these glorious things, now about to be realized, beclouds the whole, and leaves no tangible ground for God's people to stand on. Whoever attempts this wilfully will run the risk of losing his soul, for Jesus says "if any man shall add or take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part (from the tree of life--margin) and out of the Holy CITY." Rev. xxii: 19. Proof positive, that the Saints have a part in the City, and not in themselves.

Let us now listen to his description of this glorious view he sees before him, while he sits, pen in hand, all ready to write down what transpires at the command of his guide.

"I, John, saw the holy CITY NEW JERUSALEM coming down from God, _out of Heaven_, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." In the 5th v. John saw him that "was dead and is alive forevermore," seated upon "his throne;" and he said unto me "write, for these words are true and faithful." "And there came unto me one of the seven angels, saying come up hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife; and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and _shewed_ me that great CITY THE HOLY JERUSALEM, descending _out of Heaven_ from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal. And I heard a great voice _out_ of Heaven saying, behold, the TABERNACLE of God is with men." What a beautiful description is here--please read the whole chapter. In the two first verses of the xxii. chapter, we learn that the walls of this CITY enclose "the tree of life," "which is in the midst of the _Paradise of God_." Moses testifies that "the Lord God planted a _garden_ eastward in _Eden_, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And the tree of life also in the midst of the _garden_, and a _river_ went out of _Eden_ to water the garden, and became into four heads." Gen. xi: 8, 10; iii: 3, 17, 22, 24. Compare this with Ezekiel's prophecy, xlvii: 3, 5, 12; also xlviii: 30, 35. There he speaks of waters first shallow and then deep; waters to swim in that could not be passed over, on the "banks of which shall be fruit every month, and the leaves for medicine." He also shows the four sides or "heads" to the river. The prophet Isaiah says "Look upon _Zion, the City_. _Jerusalem._ _Tabernacle_, a place of broad rivers and streams; where shall pass no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby,"--xxxiii: 20, 21. Surely this is the same which Moses and Ezekiel has described; and John says, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the _Paradise_ of God. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. xxii: 17, 2, 7. Then this "_Holy City_, _new Jerusalem_, _the Zion of God_, _the Tabernacle of God_, _the Bride the Lamb's Wife_, _the Mother of us all_," is a _City_, enclosed with a wall one hundred and forty-four cubits high, which embraces the "_garden of Eden, the Paradise of God_." And God calls it his "SANCTUARY." I suppose that it will be conceded by all, that the _Garden of Eden_ at the time of the fall, was a literal place, and was planted eastward. Yes, says one, and it is located in "Ethiopia or Assyria." How then is it, that the traveller and historian are entirely silent about it? Surely, it is a most remarkable place. Hear Moses's description of it:--"Therefore the Lord God sent him (Adam) forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man: and placed at the _East_ of the garden of Eden, Cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the tree of life." Gen. iii: 23, 24. Now we have no account that these Cherubims and flaming sword has ever been seen within the orbit of this planet (which is allowed to be 162 millions of miles in diameter) since the fall of man, but has been far removed out of their sight. The prophet says, "Behold the time shall come that these tokens which I have told thee, shall come to pass, and the _Bride_ shall appear, and the coming forth shall be seen that _now is withdrawn from the earth_,"--xi. Esdras: 7, 26. This shows that Paradise is not located in this planet. But perhaps you do not believe that Esdras is a true prophet; well then, will you believe St. Paul? He says, "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I cannot tell, God knoweth) such an one caught up to the third Heaven--God knoweth how that he was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not (possible: margin) for a man to utter." 2 Cor. xii: 4. St. John's testimony agrees with Paul, for he says he "saw the _Bride the Lamb's wife_, coming down from God, _out of Heaven_," without doubt, the same place where he had been. But says the objector, if John saw it coming down 1750 years ago, it ought to have been here by this time. Very true; but John "saw things which must shortly come to pass." Rev. 1. Let us just look at a few of the things he saw, and remember at the same time how he was directed to write them down, that every important point might be recorded. He saw the "abomination (Popery) that maketh desolate set up," four hundred and forty-five years in the future. Again, he saw the seven angels going forth with their trumpets to sound--he particularly describes the three last. See Rev. viii: 13; ix: 17, 19. Here he shows us what was to be the component parts of gunpowder, and in a very peculiar and clear manner describes the musket with the ball, (head) how they killed men 1350 years before muskets were used on horse-back--17th v. Further, how could he have described the second advent history so minutely as he has done in the xiv. chapter, if he had not have seen what was to be, and has been fulfilled; and how is it possible he could have given such a lamentable picture of "Mistery Babylon," if he had not have seen in _these last days_ of "perilous times," the professed children of God drinking from the old mother's cup of poison, while "she was drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Rev. xvii. and xviii. Once more, how did David see that blood thirsty mob shoot out the lip, and laugh to scorn their Savior; and the four Roman soldiers under his cross dividing his garments and casting lots for his vesture, twelve hundred years before it took place. John xix: 23, 24. Why! just as St. John saw the _Holy City_ coming down at the second advent of Jesus--just as I believe, it will be seen, "Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." Rev. xxi: 11. The most precious is the green, spotted with red and purple. We will now look at the

ASTRONOMICAL VIEW.

From what part of Heaven will this glorious _City_ appear? We answer, from where the flaming sword is "guarding the way of the tree of life," and the Cherubims are stationed. John i: 51. Furgerson, the celebrated astronomer of the last century, in describing some of the many wonders in the Heavens, says "that the two bright clouds in the heavens at the south pole, called by mariners the clouds of Magelen, are by astronomers called cloudy stars, but the most remarkable of all the cloudy stars is that in the middle of Orion's Sword, where seven stars (of which three are very close together) seem to shine through a cloud, very lucid in the middle, but faint and ill defined about the edges. It looks like a GAP in the sky, through which one may see (as it were) part of a much brighter region. Although most of the spaces are but a few minutes of a degree in breadth, yet, since they are among the fixed stars, they must be spaces larger than what is occupied by our Solar System--(the Solar System includes the Planet Uranus, which is one thousand and eight hundred millions of miles from the Sun, the circumference of her orbit in which she revolves around the Sun is calculated to be three hundred and fourteen millions of miles)--and in which there seems to be a perpetual uninterrupted day among numberless worlds, which no human art can ever discover."--_Furgerson's Treatise on Astronomy, edition A. D. 1770._

Out of ninety-three, Orion is the most striking and splendid constellation in the Heavens; her centre is mid way between the poles of heaven and directly over the equator of the Earth, and is visible from all the habitable parts of the Globe. On her south-eastern quarter is the beautiful star Sirius, (one of the most magnificent in the Heavens.) and on the north-west is stationed the Pleiades or seven Stars. "She rises at noon about the 9th of March" "and sets at noon about the 21st of June," and comes to the meridian January 23d, at 9 P. M. She is now to be seen for a little while, in the evening twilight, about one hour high, with the Planets Jupiter and Mars on her north and north-west. When the Lord answered Job out of the whirl wind, and demanded of him to answer to the wonderful questions which he was now about to put to him, he says "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades _or loose the bands of_ ORION." When Amos, the Prophet exhorted his Israel to repentance, he endeavored to impress their minds with the power of God by adverting to the wonderful phenomena in the Heavens, by saying, "Seek him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion," &c. &c.

HUGGENS, its first discoverer, gives the following description of it: "Astronomers place three stars close together in the Sword of Orion; and when I viewed the middle-most with a Telescope, in the year 1656, there appeared in the place of that one, twelve other stars; among these three that almost touch each other, and four more besides appeared twinkling as through a cloud, so that the space about them seemed much brighter than the rest of the heaven, which appearing wholly blackish, by reason of the fair weather, was seen as through a curtain opening, through which one had a free view into another region which was more enlightened. I have frequently observed the same appearance in the same place without any alteration; so that it is likely that this wonder, whatever it may be in itself, has been there from all times; but I never took notice of any thing like it among the rest of the fixed stars."

Sir WILLIAM HERSCHEL says, "If stars of the eighth magnitude are to be considered at an average of eight times further distant than those of the first, then this nebula cannot be supposed to be less than 320,000,000,000,000, three hundred and twenty thousand billions of miles from the earth. If its diameter at this distance subtend an angle of ten minutes, which it nearly does, its magnitude must be utterly inconceivable. It has been calculated that it must exceed 2,000,000,000,000,000,000, or two trillions of times the dimensions of the Sun, vast and incomprehensible as these dimensions are."--_See Dick's Siderial Heavens, Vol. VIII. pp. 181, 184._

Says this author--"Suffice it to say that such an enormous mass of luminous matter was not created in vain, but serves a purpose in the divine arrangements corresponding to its magnitude and the nature of its luminosity, and to the wisdom and intelligence of him whose power brought it into existence. It doubtless subserves some important purpose, even at the present moment, to worlds and beings within the range of its influence. But the ultimate in all its bearings and relations, may perhaps remain to be evolved during the future ages of an interminable existence." Page 184.

Again, says the ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS of April 19th, 1845: "Marvellous rumors are afloat respecting the Astronomical discoveries made by Lord Rosse's monster Telescope. (This is said to be sixty feet long and its great speculum or reflecting large glass measures six feet in diameter and weighs three and three-fourths tons, and is calculated to discover glorious objects in the Heavens, to man heretofore unknown.) It is stated that Regulus, instead of being a sphere, is ascertained to be a Disc; and stranger still, that the nebula in the belt of Orion (meaning the bright place before stated) is a universal system, a sun with planets moving round it, as the earth and her fellows move around our glorious luminary."

Thus we see from all the testimony adduced, (and we could give much more were it necessary) that here is a most wonderful and inexplainable phenomena in the heavens: a gap in the sky, more than 11,314,000,000 miles in circumference. Says the celebrated HUGGENS, "I never saw anything like it among the rest of the fixed stars--a free view into another region more enlightened." I have had the pleasure (with others) during the past month, to see this wonder in the Heavens a number of evenings, through J. Delano, Jr's. excellent Telescope.

It has been supposed by some, that this wonderful phenomena seen through the sword of Orion, has passed through some material change since it was first discovered by Huggens, one hundred and ninety years ago. On this point Sir John Herschel says: "When it is considered how difficult it is to represent such an object duly, and how entirely its appearance will differ even in the same Telescope, according to the clearness of the air, or other temporary causes, we shall readily admit that we have no _evidence of change_ that can be relied on."

As I had before partially examined the Bible view of the _opening Heavens_, I think I never shall forget the thrill that pervaded my whole being, the first time that I saw this celestial wonder coursing its way down the western Heavens! Since then, when I have viewed it through the Telescope, my mind would instinctively revert to Moses's description of the _liberated_ children of Abraham, passing through the Red Sea, with that wonderful miracle "the pillar of fire, between them and the Egyptian Host." My thoughts still running onward, from type to antitype, "God looking through the cloud of fire in the morning watch;" at once vanquished the enemies of his chosen people. Exo. xiv: 24, 27.

So in _this_ morning watch God will not only look through this mighty space, (black on one side with the stormy cloud,) but, as the Prophet Joel says, he will "_Roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the Heavens and the Earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people.--So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy._" ("CLEANSED.") iii: 16, 17.

A western view, with an inverting eye piece, gives it the appearance of a stormy dark cloud, with a full moon just shut in behind it, and three bright stars looking through the cloud. This dark looking cloud is called the gap in the sky. This constellation measures about one thousand miles from North to South, and five hundred from East to West, and is visible to all the inhabitants of the earth.

Here then is a mighty Image (as represented on the map of the Heavens,) stretched across mid heaven, with his gold and silver epaulettes (four hundred and eighty miles apart) and two burning stars denoting his Northern and Southern extremities: the golden one on his upraised left foot, the other of silver on his right knee, answering to the one on his left shoulder; girded with his brilliant studded belt and flaming sword; "doubtless, to subserve some important purpose even at the present moment." Let it be distinctly understood, with what has already been stated by the Astronomers, that this "constellation is one of the most brilliant and noted in the Heavens," that its nebula, (according to the celebrated Sir WILLIAM HERSCHEL) far exceeds any other object, and its magnitude utterly inconceivable, two trillions times larger than the Sun; while the Sun is allowed to be thirteen hundred thousand times larger than our globe. That it "never yet has been resolved into stars by the highest power of the telescope," and there is no evidence of any change, even if it were discovered to be resolvable, (as is stated by a writer somewhat acquainted with Lord Rosse's monster telescope.) If so, it goes to strengthen the argument of its first discoverer, who says "through which one had a free view into another region which was more enlightened."

If, then, there is nothing to be seen on Earth or in the Heavens except what Joshua and David saw, v: 13, 14; 1 Chro. xxi: 15, 16, that looks like this constellation, would it be thought strange for a Christian to believe that the Prophet Moses had recorded for our instruction the very answer to be given, viz. "to keep the way of the tree of life."

I have now given a general description of this celestial wonder, but some may still doubt whether any thing can be ascertained with respect to objects so far removed. If the most accurate calculations had not already been made in respect to many of the heavenly bodies, how could the tempest tossed mariner, after being driven for days, and sometimes weeks, sailing on all points of the compass, and perhaps, not have known his position from the time he had taken his departure from his port, only by dead reckoning, nothing in sight but sea and sky, ascertain his true position? Just look,--there stands the captain, on some convenient part of the deck of his ship, holding in his hand a three cornered instrument, called a Sextant, measuring the distance between the sun and moon, or if it be in the night, between the moon and some lunar star, (which is millions on millions of miles removed from the Solar System,) noting the moment by his watch when he brings the outer or inner edges of these two celestial objects to touch; then measuring their distance from the horizon. With the help of a Nautical Almanac, (which had been published years before,) in the course of twenty minutes he so confidently ascertains his position, (however strange it may appear to landsmen,) that he would, after running ten or one hundred miles more or less, as the case may be, direct one of his crew to go to the mast head, and tell him at the same time in what direction to look for land. Presently the cry would come down, thrilling through every soul in the ship, "Land ho!" "Where away?" "Off the starboard bow, sir, where you told me to look." Such instances are not rare, but of daily occurrence. "How could that be?" says one, "it looks like a miracle!" So it would be, if the great God had not directed these celestial objects to move in perfect harmony. A place for every one, and every one in its place.

One at a certain time said, "Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection?" The wise man answers, "No man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." Ecl. iii: 2; Job xi: 7. These texts alone teach us that we yet know but little of the power and wisdom of the Sovereign of the universe, whose spirit fills unlimited space; which space is undoubtedly coeval and coextensive with eternity; studded with millions on millions of worlds, each moving in its appropriate Sphere, like our own Planet. But a still greater wonder is the thousands and millions of blazing Comets, even in the Solar System, (Dick, vol. viii: p. 339,) seemingly sailing with a roving commission, sweeping their burning trails all over the perceptible universe of God, each moving in its proper Orbit! some of them shooting, at times, almost with the velocity of lightning! And yet, with what precision does the Astronomer calculate their appearing again after hundreds and thousands of years, without interfering with any of the celestial scenery. Just turn over to the second page of your Almanac and learn with what admirable accuracy the Astronomer has calculated, even to a moment of time, when the moon of yesterday will be passing under the sun, and cause the darkness to be seen and felt.