Biblical Apocalyptics; A Study of the Most Notable Revelations of God and of Christ in the Canonical Scriptures (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... .their Lord, went up to heaven in a cloud (xi, 12). These symbolic representations were given as a comfort and assurance to all those in the early Church who were called to suffer with their Lord, and who were wont to say, If we suffer, we shall also reign with him (2 Tim. ii, 12). Moreover, the statement that her child was caught up unto God and unto his throne, as from before the face of the dragon, does not accurately describe the ascension of Christ; but it does appropriately symbolize the triumph of the martyrs who overcame because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and loved not their lives unto death (verse 11). The apocalyptist here makes no account of physical death. The fact that the dragon did kill the children of the Church (xi, 7) amounts to nothing in this vision in view of their immediate exaltation to the throne of God. They realize what Jesus said of himself as the resurrection and the life, and that he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die (John xi, 25, 26). Compare also Luke xxi, 18, 19: Not a hair of your head shall perish. In your patience ye shall win your souls. 6. Hie woman fled into the wilderness--Appropriate symbol of the scattering of the church in Jerusalem by reason of great persecution (Acts viii, 1). Jesus himself commanded a similar flight in Luke xxi, 21; Matt. xxiv, 16. According to Eusebius (bk. iii, chap. v), the whole body of the church in Jerusalem, commanded by a divine revelation, fled to Pella, beyond the Jordan, which place at that time, according to Josephus (Wars, bk. iii, 3, 3), was mostly a desert. But we should err in confining the symbolic flight of this woman to any...