John contained in the New Testament, the Gospel, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse, according to Luthardt, form a beautiful, har- monious whole ; as faith, love, and hope mingle into one, so do these writings of St. John, though each has its characteristic ; faith is prominent in the Gospel, love in the Epistles, and hope in the Apocalypse. The theme of the Book of Revelation is, — " Behold, He comes." Luthardt admits that commentators differ greatly as to their views of its meaning, and that, at first, it appears very full of enigmas ; but he adds, l " Whoever is familiar with the ancient prophecies, and gives himself with loving confi- dence to this book, will soon find the right way, which will lead him safely through all its labyrinths." This is the experience of every commentator so far as he himself is concerned, however he may fail to satisfy his readers that his way is the right one. The main principle of Luthardt's exposition is, " That the Revelation of John does not contemplate the events of history, whether of the Church or of the world. It contemplates the end. We find that the antagonism of the Church and the world, and the issue of the conflict are its contents ; the coming of Christ is its theme. The events of history preceding the consummation are taken up only so far as they are connected with the final issue. This con- summation is not chronologically unfolded, but is ever taken up anew, in order to lead us by a new way to the end." 2 One thing is certain, namely, that the Apocalypse contains the series of pre- dictions common to all the prophets ; the defections of the people of God ; persecutions of their enemies ; direful judgments on the persecutors ; and the final triumph and blessedness of the elect. Under different forms, this is the burden of all the disclosures God has seen fit to make of the fate of his Church here on earth ; and this is the burden of the Apocalypse. According to Lutuardt, the first vision i. 9-iii. 22, concerns the present state of the Church ; the second vision, iv. 1-viii. 1, concerns God and the world; the third vision, viii. 2-xi. 19, concerns the judgment of the world and the consummation of covenant fellowship with God; the fourth vision, xii.-xiv. concerns the Church and the antichristian world power ; this contains the vision of the woman, which brought forth the man child ; and in xii. 18-xiii. 18, Antichrist and the false prophet; and in xiv. the Church of the end, and the judgment of the antichristian world ; and the fifth vision, xv.-xxii. concerns the outpouring of wrath upon the world and the redemption of the Church.
i Die Lehre von den letzten Dingen, pp. 165-173; see page 173. 2 Ibid., p. 171.
828 PART IV. Ch. III. — THE SECOND ADVENT.
It is characteristic of the Apocalypse that it takes up and expands the eschatological predictions of the earlier portions of Scripture. What in the Old Testament or in the Epistles of the New Testament, is set forth under one symbol and in the con- crete, is in the Apocalypse presented under two or more symbols representing the constituent elements of the whole. Thus the Antichrist is predicted in Daniel under the symbol of " the little horn," and in Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians under the title of the Man of Sin. Antichrist, as thus portrayed, includes an ecclesiastical and a worldly element ; an apostate Church invested with imperial, worldly power. In the Apocalypse these two ele- ments are represented as separate and united ; a woman sitting on a beast with ten horns. The woman is the apostate Church ; the beast is the symbol of the world-power by which it is sup- ported. The destruction of the one, therefore, does not involve the destruction of the other. According to the prediction in the eighteenth chapter, the kings of the earth, wearied with the arro- gance and assumption of the apostate Church, shall turn against it, waste, and consume it ; that is, despoil it of its external power and glory. The destruction of Babylon, therefore, here predicted, is understood by that diligent student of prophecy, Mr. D. N. Lord, not as implying the overthrow of the Papacy, but its " denationalization" and spoliation.1
Throughout the Scriptures the relation between God and his people is illustrated by that of a husband to his wife ; apostasy from God, therefore, is in the ancient prophets called adultery. In the Revelation, the Church, considered as faithful, is called the woman ; as apostate, the adulteress or harlot ; and as glorified, the bride, the Lamb's wife. It is in accordance with the analogy of Scripture that the harlot spoken of in chapters xvii. and xviii. is understood to be the apostate Church. Of this woman it is said : (1.) That she sits on many waters. This is explained in xvii. 15, of her wide spread dominion : u The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." (2.) That she seduced the nations into idolatry ; making the inhabitants of the earth drunk with the wine of her fornication. (3.) That she is sustained in her blasphemous assump- tion of divine prerogatives and powers by the kings and princes of the earth. She is seen sitting on a scarlet-coloured beast, full of the names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. In verse 12, these ten horns are said to be ten kings, i. e., in the lan-
i An Exposition of the Apocalypse. By David N. Lord. New York, 1859, p. 502.