An Exposition of Revelation .pdf

preliminary vision in heaven which the prophet was caught up to behold? Does it not suppose the total
passing away of that church state, which we all believe still to subsist? Does it not reveal, "after these
things," the action of God's throne by judgments on the world, to put the Lord Jesus in possession of
His long-promised inheritance of all things?
The church condition indeed is not, strictly speaking, the subject of prophecy, which deals with
the world, and shows us divine judgments coming on its evil, when God is about to make room for
glory according to His own mind. Such is the great theme of the book of Revelation. But inasmuch as
there were Christian assemblies then, the Spirit of God is pleased to preface it with a most remarkable
panoramic view of the church condition, as long as it should subsist before the Lord on the earth. We
have seen this given with the most striking wisdom, so as to suit at the time of John, yet also as long
as Christianity goes on, always applying and increasingly, not every part at once, but with sufficient
light to give children of God full satisfaction as to the mind of the Lord. The churches delineated in
these seven epistles are "the things that are," a phrase which naturally lends itself to continuance. It is
not prophecy; yet the letters of Christ afford, as time passes, divine light on the succeeding states
Christendom assumes. Nevertheless the coming of the Lord remains thus in God's wisdom the everpresent
and constant hope of the Christian. So indeed the Lord took care to guard against misuse of
His parabolic instruction.
Thus the change is immense as a whole, and the revealed details only the more disclose its true
nature. There is no vision henceforth of the Son of Man in the midst of churches. No more are
churches recognised when "the things which are about to take place after these" begin. Revelation 22:
16 is no exception; for this applies only in John's day, or at most as long as the existing condition
abides. It is only in the conclusory appeals of the book, and has nothing to do with the predicted things
to succeed the present. Chapter 4 lets us see a quite new sight in heaven after the existing things
terminate on earth.
"After these things I saw, and, behold, a door opened in the heaven, and the first voice which I
heard as of a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which
must take place after these things. Immediately I became in Spirit; and, behold, a throne was set in the
heaven, and upon the throne one sitting, and the sitter [was] in appearance like a stone jasper and
sardius; and a rainbow round the throne in appearance like an emerald. And round the throne [were]
twenty-four thrones, and upon the thrones [I saw] twenty-four elders sitting, clothed with white
garments, and upon their heads golden crowns. And out of the throne proceed lightnings and voices
and thunders; and seven torches of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God;
and before the throne as a sea of glass like crystal. And in the midst of the throne and around the
throne [were] four living creatures full of eyes before and behind; and the first living creature like a
lion, and the second living creature like a young ox, and the third living creature having the face as of
a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, having each one
of them respectively six wings, are full of eyes round and within; and they have no intermission day
and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord, the Almighty God, that was and that is, and that is to come.
And when the living creatures shall give glory and honour and thanksgiving to him that sitteth upon
the throne, that liveth unto the ages of the ages, the twenty-four elders shall fall before him that sitteth
upon the throne, and shall do homage to him that liveth unto the ages of the ages, and shall cast their
crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the
honour and the power; because thou didst create all things, and for thy will they were, and were
created."
At the epoch where the chapter first applies, the day of the Lord is not come; but a vast change
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