The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

5. The resultant "seven thunders" represents controversies in the religious world, the
utterances of which St. John was forbidden to record.
6. The receiving of the little book from the angel, and the eating of it by St. John describes
in symbol the receiving in a special sense the Word of God afresh by true followers of
Christ.
7. The second commission to disseminate the Message and to give a world-wide witness to
the Truth, we found to have its complete fulfillment in modern times.
St. John in this, as in the previous vision of eating the "little book" and prophesying before
many peoples, nations, etc., represents the Lord's consecrated at the time of the vision's
fulfillment. The command to measure the temple, etc., is given by the same one who told
him to eat the "little book"--the mighty angel of Rev. 10:1. (Compare Rev. 11:3.) That which
St. John now beheld was Jerusalem, its temple, courts, and worshipers, all of which are
employed in the vision as symbols.
It will be evident to the Bible student that before we can understand what the things are
that are referred to in the vision, it will be necessary to become familiar with the typical
nature of Jerusalem, its temple, courts, and worshipers. These are among the things
referred to by the Apostle Paul as "shadows of good things to come." (Heb. 10:1.) In other
words, the temple, courts, altar, worshipers, and the sacrifices and services performed in
connection with the Jewish worship were Divine types of the various features of the great
Plan of salvation, called in this vision, "the mystery of God." (Rev. 10:7.) A digesting of the
knowledge of this Divine Plan was typified in St. John's eating the contents of the "little
book."
In the vision we are now considering, another phase of the work to be performed by the
true followers of Christ is pictured, and the work covers the same period as that of the
previous chapter--from the Reformation down to the present time. In a general way, as
applicable to the true Church, the vision describes the work to be done as that of
determining exactly the meaning of all matters pertaining to the Christian religion, as
Christ's sacrifice, the terms of membership into the true Church, the consecration and
sacrifice of Christ's Body members, and the relation of all these things to the human family
at large. The occasion for such a work to be done was that the professing Church on earth
had become apostate.
The Papacy had perverted the Scriptural teaching concerning the Lord's Memorial Supper,
claiming that it is a real sacrifice, termed by them the sacrifice of the Mass; thus the
teaching is that every time the Mass is celebrated Christ is sacrificed afresh, and this was
constituted an essential article of faith. They had changed the simple office of ministering
servants into a priesthood, thus perverting the Scripture teaching that the priesthood is
made up of all consecrated believers. The Papal altar had almost entirely replaced the
pulpit. Every truth that was originally committed to the Apostles had been perverted,
indeed counterfeited.