Die 12.000 worden inderdaad verzegelden uit Israël genoemd. Maar dat kan heel goed het geestelijk Israël zijn (bijvoorbeeld Jak. 1:1, de twaalf stammen in de verstrooiing). Ik heb daar geen moeite mee, omdat Openbaring alleen over de gemeente gaat. Daar ben ik vrij stevig van overtuigd, ik zie geen aanleiding om het hele boek na hst. 3 aan de joden op te hangen, alleen om deze twee teksten (7 en 14). Ik zou dan in onoverkomelijke moeilijkheden raken met de uitleg.
Door de conversie pdf naar rtf krijg ik een rare opmaak. Kun je daar als computernerd (wat ik helaas niet ben) iets aan doen?
Examination of Rev.12.
It is necessary that we should say a few words on
the contents of the 12th chapter of Revelation,
since the events described therein belong also to the
times we are treating of.
We have there a woman represented in vision,
but how different from the woman of the 17th chap-
ter! Clothed with light, and walking in light, and the
stars of light circling her brow! (Gen.1.14-16). Com-
bining all the ordinances of heaven, the Church is
seen as the faithful one, the Mother of the Man-child
who is about ( µ) to rule the nations. All the Fathers agree that this is a vision of the Church
(though some of them make strange confusion by the
errors which they have added;) and they had a very
general perception that the history of the sun-clad
woman and her seed is that of the Church, just previ-
ous to, and in, the times of Antichrist. At a later pe-
riod some of them, while continuing to apply this vi-
sion to the Church, introduced the Virgin Mary as the
primary subject of it. This error may be traced to Epiphanius, A.D. 400, who, making a guess and in- terpreting the symbol literally, says, “that, seeing the uncertainty of her (Virgin Mary’s) later history, for anything known to the contrary, she may be the
woman flying into the wilderness.” (Epiphan. Lib.3. t.
21, c. 11). Some make it to be the Jewish Church,
with the twelve patriarchs round her head, giving
birth to Jesus Christ, or to His body the Church.
Some say that it will be the Jewish Church restored
in the last days. And some, that it will be a Christian
Church formed of converted Jews in Judea in that
day. But none of these interpretations can stand a
moment’s consideration. For when did either the Vir-
gin Mary or the Jewish Church flee into the wilder-
ness (whatever that may mean) for 1260 days, or
three years [288], and a half, whether we take that
period to signify three and a half literal years, or 1260
years? (Rev. 12.6,14). What happened to the Virgin
Mary? or what happened to the Jewish Church, at the termination of A.D. 1260? It is an absurdity, and
needs no refutation. So also as to the speculation that
it may be the Jewish Church restored. For every one
of the expositors is obliged by the context to confess,
that this vision is to be realised before, and during,
the time of Antichrist; and therefore it is quite clear
that what is pointed at cannot be the Jewish Church
restored to God’s favour and converted to Christ; for
before the Second Advent of our Lord there can be no
Jewish Church, but only the Christian Church, in
which there is neither Jew nor Gentile known. And moreover, if the Jewish people and nation were con- verted to Christ before His Second Advent, then they
would all be translated and caught up to meet Him at
His coming, and so there would be no Jewish nation
left on the earth, which would render void all the prophecies concerning them and their future position among the nations. And as to the last of this series of
errors, viz., that it is a small Judaic Christian Church
in Judea that is to be clothed with the sun, and to
have the twelve stars round her head, and that her
child is to rule the nations, it is only needful to men-
tion it, that the unreasonableness of it may be seen.
Having disposed of these futile imaginations, let
us examine the true meaning of the symbols of this
chapter.
We before said that the Church could be re-
garded (spiritually) under two aspects at the same
time; one, as the faithless and corrupt harlot, the
other as the [289] faithful mother of God’s children.
There has been a measure of truth in that which
many have contended for, namely, that the real exis-
tence of the Church is an invisible one, and its unity
spiritual; and that those are the true members of it
who in all ages have been united to the Head, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and to one another, in the power
of the Holy Ghost. This, no doubt, has been the case;
and thus has the Church ever been the mother of
those who, in the aggregate, will form that one body
that shall rule the nations, here symbolised as the
man-child.50 But while this is true, there is a special-
ity of time in regard to this vision. As in the 17th
chapter, while the Woman and the Beast are both
seen in their general history, and from their earliest
existence, till the time of their destruction, yet has
that chapter a special reference to a certain definite
period of their career; so this 12th chapter, while it
may show the Church in all generations, has special
reference to a certain period of her history, and that
period is, as above mentioned, that which immedi-
ately precedes and accompanies the Antichristian
time. And then she is seen with the crown of apostle-
ship round her head, and as bringing into manifesta-
tion that body which is to be caught up to God and to
His throne, and whereby He will rule the nations.51
(Micah 5.3; Rev. 2.27; Matt. 13:40; Cant 6.10) [290].
“The Man-child.”
The earlier Fathers saw more clearly the meaning
of the symbol than those who came after. Stanley Fa-
ber, says, in his “Sacred Calendar of Prophecy:” (Vol.3.117,119) - “In the symbolical language of the ancient prophets, the birth of a man-child denotes the
setting apart of a community from the great general
mass with which it was previously commingled; while
the gestation and labour-throes which precede it refer
to the difficulties, trials, and troubles, of whatsoever description they may be, which precede the setting 51
Irenaeus and Victorinus both agree in the above 50
This symbol cannot mean the Lord Jesus Christ per-
sonal, for the man-child here brought forth is immediately
previous to a term, or period, of 1260 days, which cannot in
any way be predicated of the first year of the Christian era,
or of the year 33, when the Lord ascended into heaven.
interpretation. “The flight of the woman into the wilderness
is from Antichrist, and the casting of the Dragon out of heaven by Michael is at the beginning of Antichrist.” Methodius says the same: “The woman clothed with the
sun is our Mother; a certain power existing by herself, apart
from her children.. . . This power is the Church. . .It would
teach you nothing if I were to explain this to mean the natural birth of Christ; for the mystery of the Word’s incarnation was completed long before the Apocalypse was
written; and John prophesies about things that are, and
that are to come. And Christ, born long before, was not snatched up to God’s throne as soon as brought forth, lest
He should be devoured by the serpent; but He was born
and came down from the throne of His Father for this very purpose, that He might roughly handle the Dragon, and give him battle in the flesh. You must allow, therefore, that
this woman is the Church travailing with and bringing forth,
her ransomed ones.”
apart the community in question. Such, then, is the
abstract import of the birth of a man-child; but in the
present vision this allegorical phraseology has a spe-
cial and particular relation to Christ; for the man-
child is described, like Christ Himself, as one who
shall rule all nations with a rod of iron. Hence, as
Mede observes, the man-child must denote Christ in
some sense. But he cannot be the literal Christ; be-
cause such an application is not consistent with the
language of Scripture, which invariably represents
our Lord as the Husband, not as the Son of His Church;” or with the chronology of the prediction, for the literal Christ most assuredly was not
born at the commencement of the latter 1260 years,
(or days.) If this be so, “then it will plainly follow, that
the birth of the Apocalyptic man-child must denote
the setting apart of a faithful Christian ecclesiastical community from the great mass of God’s true wor- shippers: that henceforth, safe under the care of an
almighty superintending Providence, it might bear
witness to the Gospel in its corporate or collegiate ca-
pacity while the remaining mass out of which it was
taken should do so only individually and uncon-
nectedly.”
Is there not good ground to believe that the work
which we have seen commenced, and in a measure manifested, has some reference to the things here symbolised? If apostles and prophets have again been
restored; if light has been given, specially concerning
that kingdom of which the sun is the emblem, such
as had not been given for ages, if ever; if the ordi-
nances of rule and of righteousness in things of
heaven, and things of earth, have been again seen; if
men are being made ready by God’s ordinances to be
caught away unto Christ; if the Church is striving
with birth-throes (, Rev. 12.2) such as she has not ever before experienced; if, at the same time,
the world also is in the commencement of its birth-
throes, its (Matt. 24.
, which will bring
forth the Antichrist, and which the 13th chapter of Revelation shows is to accompany the birth-throes of the Church, - is it presumptuous to say that we are approaching that time when the symbol of this chap- ter shall be realised? And let it not be thought that
because the twelve stars round the woman’s head symbolise the Apostles, therefore there can be no apostles now. John the Baptist, as a prophet, complemented the work of Moses the prophet; and if
the stars mean the first Apostles, that is no reason to
forbid that that office should be seen in exercise now
at the end of the Dispensation. On the contrary, we
have reason to expect that there should be a comple-
menting and bringing to a close of the work of the
first twelve. There are twenty and four elders who sit
round the throne; and that is a symbol of something
worthy of the Church’s consideration. It may be more
than questionable, whether twelve of them signify the
twelve Patriarchs, seated in the highest place, and ex-
cluding Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We observed at the commencement, that the vi-
sion of the 4th chapter of Revelation could not be fully manifested till the completion of the body of Christ; and this is fairly to be deduced from the 5th chapter,
where the twenty-four elders, and the cherubim, the
symbols of the rulers in the Church in glory, and of
the four ministries of Christ in it, say, in their song,
that they have been redeemed unto God by the blood
of Christ, out of every kindred, and tongue, and peo-
ple, and nation; whence it may seem that the number
of those who are symbolised in that vision has not
been completed yet. The vision of the 4th chapter
showed the perfect thing first, and as it will be seen
when all is accomplished; and then the following
chapters proceed to show the successive steps to it.
We may have seen the beginning of these things;
who can tell all that the Church will have to go
through yet, before that birth be completed?
It is when the war in heaven, mentioned in this
chapter, takes place, and Satan shall no longer be
allowed either to appear before God, as “The Accuser of the brethren,” (Job 1.6; Rev. 12.10) or to hinder the Lord any more in His Church by his spiri-
tual operations in the invisible, but is cast down to
the earth, - it is then that his malice will be stirred up
more than ever to use the earthly powers outwardly
against the Church; and then indeed will the powers
of the empire be urged on by him to do their worst;
and he will bring up its last Head and its ten Kings to
do His work, and seek to crush the Church out of the
world. But the Lord will not leave Himself without witnesses against him, He will raise up His “two Witnesses;” and the Beast from the bottomless pit shall
fight against them, and slay them; but only to His
own destruction (Rev. 11.3,7).
