The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

As introductory to a consideration of the most remarkable visions described in chapters
ten and eleven and their fulfillment in history, we would remind the reader that they form
no part of the events of the sixth trumpet vision. The sixth trumpet, as we have seen, has
especially to do with events connected with the activities of the Turkish Ottoman power.
The history of this power, although covering much the same period, is not described in
these two chapters. The visions recorded in chapters ten and eleven are of such a character
as that they are readily seen to be what may be termed parenthetical; and one of the most
remarkable of these visions is retrospective. This is the vision of the prophesying of the
"two witnesses," which occupies the larger portion of chapter eleven. It carries the history
back at least to the rise of Papacy, which we have interpreted as portrayed in the third
trumpet symbol. The scenery of the vision we now consider is transferred from Eastern to
Western Christendom. The parenthetic events described are recorded between chapter
nine verse twenty-one, and chapter eleven verse fourteen. We quote, omitting the
parenthesis:
"And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the
works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver,
and brass, and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk; neither
repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornications, nor of their
thefts. . . . The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly. And the
seventh angel sounded," etc.
The symbols employed to describe the person, the surroundings, as also the words of this
mighty angel are of such a character as to denote that Christ is the One represented. As
one has said:
"O what a glorious vision to rejoice the heart of the Evangelist! What a contrast to all that
had been figured to his view since first the seven trumpet-angels prepared themselves to
sound! Indeed we may say, with what a superiority of glory in it to that of any figuration
of the future fortunes of the Church, from the commencement of the Revelation until now;
and, as it proved, with nothing comparable to it afterwards, until the vision that
foreshadowed the glories of the consummation."
Not that the vision is intended to teach that St. John actually saw Christ, but rather that it
was a vision or representation of Christ. Neither is it intended to teach that Christ
appeared in person at the time the vision began its fulfillment. This we will endeavor to
show when we consider the time in history that the vision met its fulfillment. It seems
evident also that as in the vision of Christ's appearance to St. John, recorded in chapter 1,
the members of His Body are in some sense likewise represented in this symbolic angel; as
set forth in the language of another:
"The feet, described as like furnace-refined copper, would represent . . . the living
members of the Body, all down through this Age. . . . Thus understood, the figure of a son
of man (a human figure) in the midst of the seven candlesticks . . . is an impressive picture