Apocalypse for Everyman

1. Apocalypse for Everyman By Brother Alfred D. Norris Summary presentation for Avon Bible Class presented by Brother Dean Brown, June 2007

2. Ground Rules – same as last week • Description without “cheerleading” for or against. This applies to all of us. No arguing for or against tonight. • Simple framework and confusing details. • Questions about the basic description and basic logic are allowed, but not questions about details, otherwise we’ll get bogged down.

3. 1.1: Things which must shortly come to pass. This presents all expositors of the Apocalypse with a problem. On any showing the ultimate purpose of the Book to lead us to the second coming of the Lord has not been fulfilled quickly. No doubt we are being told that the Lord will come without avoidable delay; we may also be told that, when He does come He will come at lightning speed, "as the lightning from one end of the heaven shineth to the other part under heaven" (Luke 17.24). The meaning may also be that the earliest events with which the Book opens are on the doorstep.

4. 1.11: The seven congregations. It has been suggested that these communities are typical of seven ages of our era, culminating in the time of the Lord Jesus' return. But there is absolutely nothing in the Book itself, beyond the general statement that it is designed to teach Jesus' servants about things to come, which would support this suggestion. Nor is there any such orderly regression from purity to apostacy as would make the suggestion probable.

5. … on “continuous-historic” history The plain fact is that many Bible-readers have been put off seeking to understand the Apocalypse because of the critical knowledge of history which it has appeared to demand; and many others have been content to accept the view of the Book offered to them by respected leaders, learning the history — if they learned it at all, — in the form in which it was provided, and without either the time or the inclination to put it to critical test. [Note: Historical criticisms by Brother J.B. Norris]

6. 6.1-8: The four horses The CH interpretation assumed that each of the four horses had its own historical period, running consecutively and continuously and not overlapping. But this assumption is nowhere suggested by the text, and does not conform to other parts of Scripture. The white horse does come out, and there is no indication whatever that at the conclusion of its errand it returned with its rider to stable. The same is true of the other three horses. For all the record tells us to the contrary there could have been a rapid breaking of these four Seals, followed by the emergence each in its turn of the four horses.

7. The Seals and the Olivet Prophecy The Seals and the Olivet Prophecy deal with related events. In the Olivet Prophecy, however, the "wars and rumors of wars", "famines and earthquakes in divers places", and "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world", are not located at particular periods during our dispensation. There are no doubt special periods when these things are more evident than at others, but these are characteristic of the entire epoch since the Lord Jesus ascended. The first four Seals can be readily understood as the Lord Jesus' revelation that the world in which the gospel is being preached will not be making constant progress towards the Utopia of the kingdom of God.

8. 6.11: they should rest yet for a little time If this analysis is at all correct, we are informed from within the Apocalypse itself that its major portion is concerned with the time close to the return of the Lord Jesus. Revelation is doing again what has been done so often in Scripture, leaving out a large section of intermediate history and going on to detail the events which will accompany the time of God's direct intervention in the world's affairs. Such a gap is found in Joel 2-3, in Daniel 11-12, in Daniel 9, and also in the Olivet prophecy.

9. The persecution of the last days In this Fifth Seal we are told, not only that martyred saints have been long dead and unrequited, but that living saints are not immune from the earlier sufferings. The words are now seen to speak clearly of a latter-day persecution.

10. This conclusion was so unwelcome to the writer that he meditated long and hard before concluding that it was inescapable, and that the duty of saying so could not be evaded. It is only the firmest conviction that the passage plainly states that there is to be a latter-day persecution of the saints of God which has led to the matter being written down at all. Indeed, were it not for the conclusion that the Book is actually and primarily written to prepare the saint for the problems which he will need to face as the coming of the Lord draws nigh, it is doubtful whether this writing would even have been contemplated.

11. We must obviously not be satisfied to base so far-reaching a conclusion as this, that saints will be called upon to face a fiery trial before the Lord returns, merely on the evidence of the interpretation of this [fifth] Seal. But when we do face the rest of Scripture, it becomes ever plainer that there is no escape from the conclusions arrived at here. We have repeatedly stressed the parallels with the Olivet Prophecy: then can the warnings of Luke 21.12-19; Mark 13.9-13; Matthew 24.9-13, be restricted to the events immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70? Plainly they cannot, but must also, perhaps in some cases primarily, refer to the events preceding the Lord's return.

12. 8.1: THE SEVENTH SEAL The first four Seals may not represent a sequence, but they are succeeded by the Fifth, and Sixth and Seventh, and this Seventh does immediately lead to the sounding of the Seven Trumpets. It is plain that the Trumpets are to be compressed within the short period of time which follows on the expectation of the near return of the Lord. The earth and sea are to be sorely "hurt" by the pending judgments of God (7.2-3), and now that the servants of God have been securely sealed there is nothing to prevent those judgments being executed.

13. 8.1: silence about half an hour Whatever problems may be presented by the "silence for about half an hour", there is no problem about the meaning of "heaven" in the present context. It is where John has been admitted in his vision, where in symbol the throne of God is to be found, and in which the Lamb now sits by His Father's side, opening the Book of the future. It is beneath the altar in this symbolic heavenly temple that John has seen the lives of those that were slain. Here is no 'political heaven' where the rulers of this world dwell but God does not. God's angels are here, and hither the prayers of the saints ascend.

14. And there is as little warrant for convoluted double reasoning about the length of the half hour as there is for ignoring this meaning of the word 'heaven'. To take half an hour as a 24th of a day (which it is not), and, having made that into 1/24 of a year, and then go through the exercise again, taking the 15 days which this would represent and expanding them to 15 years, is to take liberties with exposition after which nothing would be impossible. [cf. Eureka vol. 2, p. 359; comments on Rev 8:1]

15. 8.6-11.19: THE SEVEN TRUMPETS [Observe] the striking parallel between the Trumpets here, and the Vials of chapter 16. There is no denying the common plan. The capitalized words in the first four cases show that the spheres of operations, whatever their significance, are the same: EARTH - SEA - FRESH WATERS - HEAVENLY BODIES. There are torment and darkness in the fifth of each series; the River Euphrates and the assembly of armies are found in the sixth; and the portents of thunder, voices and an earthquake introduce the kingdom, resurrection and judgment in the seventh.

16. Yet the series are far from identical. In the Trumpets it is repeatedly emphasized that a third part of the area affected is desolated. No such restriction operates in the Vials. It is as though two sets of judgments are inflicted by God on the world, Trumpets first and Vials afterwards. And between the two there is strong evidence of a period of witness giving the nations their last opportunity of repentance before "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven . . . taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 1.7-8).

17. SEALS, TRUMPETS, AND VIALS It is a question needing to be answered, why the three series of disclosures should be given these names: to be sure, seals have to be broken to make it possible to open the Book, and to that extent the symbol might not have any special appropriateness of its own. But trumpets and vials are freely chosen signs, and there must be some good reason for selecting them. And so there is, and for the seals too. For if a Book is unsealed its contents can be read. There may not be anything in the contents of the Book which speaks of special action on God's part, but at least there is His foreknowledge of what is to come, and it is this pre-eminently that the Seals do disclose.

18. It is the Seventh Seal which ushers in the Trumpets, and these Trumpets are sounded by God's angels. Trumpets sound alarms to call people together, or they sound the note to assemble armies to battle; or they issue a warning of dangers against which precautions must be taken. In the Old Testament the silver [trumpets] were used to summon Israel in the Wilderness to make or strike camp, and accompanied the dedication or rededication of the Temple, while the shophar was used both in religious services and in calling people to battle. So here in the Apocalypse the Trumpets sound alarms and warnings.

19. Here is action by God, which people can heed if they will, and in heeding might avert the worse things yet to come. But if Trumpets are warnings, Vials are outpourings. We have gone beyond mere disclosure, and again beyond the sounding of the alarm, and have reached the point where there is no return: the end has come. God is pouring out His final judgments on the world, and there can be no turning back.

20. THE TEMPLE OF GOD CLOSED After these things I saw, and … there came out from the temple the seven angels that had the seven plagues … And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, … and none was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels should be finished. (15.5-8)

21. The angels come out to pour God's vengeance on the world (15.6), but only those who have already repented and received the gospel have now any right to His care and protection under the visitations to come. A very clearly written NO ADMITTANCE notice is posted outside the sanctuary, and, like the unrepentant Pharaoh of the Exodus, the world must now accept and endure the tribulations which it has brought upon itself by its refusal to listen to the final appeal. Before attempting any more detailed analysis of these chapters, let us summarize the general position arrived at:

22. (a) At a time when the saints have been told that the end is not far away, and men are recoiling in fear from the anticipated pouring out of God's wrath, the saints are reminded that they are secure in God's care whatever now may come, and whatever may befall them. (b) Under the symbolism of the Trumpets, God then proceeds to pour out severe and destructive, but not final, judgments on every sphere of human interest — earth, fresh waters which may be drunk, salt waters for navigation and fishing, and the heavenly providers of heat and light; followed by yet more severe judgments in the shape of the last three Trumpets, the "three Woes".

23. (c) In the course of the Sixth Trumpet, the Second Woe, the gospel is powerfully preached throughout the world, to which men in general decline to respond by way of repentance, just as they did during the judgments which precede this witness, (d) As a result, the world is now told that the door to fruitful repentance is to be closed. (e) The last, inescapable, judgments are then poured out on the impenitent world, and finally, after the "battle of the great day of God Almighty", the "kingdom of this world" is abolished, and replaced by "the kingdom of our God and of His Christ".

24. This summary shows clearly how much this Book concentrates on the last days. It needed but one chapter (6) to bring us within eyeshot of the end-times, but then it takes nine (7-15) to prepare the scene. We then have four more chapters in which the last crisis is worked out in detail, and we are taken to the installation of the Lamb and His saints on the thrones of the kingdom.

25. THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS (8.1-13) The point emerges that these are divine judgments, and we might think that the world should see them to be such, as clearly as Pharaoh did the signs wrought through Moses. In these circumstances it is doubly difficult to make any confident guess as to what the signs will prove to be on fulfillment: because they will be inflicted in some way by God Himself, and because we have not yet reached the point referred to. When this Trumpet sounds, the very core of man's daily life will be painfully touched, with damage comparable with the wreck of the agriculture of Egypt by the Plagues.

26. Bound at the great river Euphrates (9.14) Why Euphrates? The river is referred to again in the Sixth Vial. Ever since Joseph Mede (ca. 1640) the opinion has been widespread that the reference in the latter case is to the downfall of the Turkish Empire, which was to be the last step before the return of the Lord Jesus. This is already rendered improbable by the fact that the bigger part of a century has passed since Turkey ceased to control the Holy Land; and in any case to introduce the power of Turkey is not to provide a biblical solution of the problem, attractive though it might have seemed under the political conditions of the 17th century.

27. The biblical solution must surely go back to the Old Testament, where the river is preeminently the River of Babylon, especially in the Book of Jeremiah, and when that prophet sent Seraiah to bind a stone to the manuscript of the prophecy of the fate of Babylon and cast it into Euphrates, he linked the River with the fate of the city in a way which must provide the basis for the interpretation of both symbols.

28. Though we have not so far met the name Babylon in Revelation, we shall do so in [chapters 14, 16, 17, and 18]. Here Babylon clearly appears as a principal enemy of the gospel and of the saints, shortly before the Lord returns. In 16.19 the city appears in close proximity with the River, and when we recall that the literal city fell when a by-pass channel was constructed so as to dry up Euphrates, so that a way might be provided for the kings from the Sun's Rising, those of the Medes and Persians (Isaiah 41.2,25), there can be little doubt that the fall of the actual city in Old Testament times provides the model for the fall of a spiritual Babylon-on-Euphrates in the Apocalypse.

29. CHAPTER 11: THE TWO WITNESSES Since everything we have so far found points to a short and sharp sequence of events during these days, it would seem that, if a precise period is defined by this time-period at all, it must be a literal 3.5 years, and could not be anything approaching an actual period of 1260 years, which a principle of a day for a year would require.

30. CHAPTER 12: THE WOMAN, THE MANCHILD, AND THE DRAGON The woman here depicted is adorned with sun, moon, and twelve stars, and the only place in Scripture where these precise symbols are combined is in Joseph's Dream. The woman is therefore the ideal Israel, at this stage — despite aspersions sometimes gratuitously cast on her character by those who wish to present her as a harlot community giving birth to an apostate quasi-Christian ruler, — glorious in appearance and about to give birth to a glorious Child.

31. The [dragon] represents universal hostility to godly people . In addition to the indications we have already had, the "rod of iron" well-nigh identifies positively this Manchild with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true that the Lord promises similar authority to His saints (2.27), but this is to be in the Kingdom where He will exercise the same authority as their Leader (19.15). This last reference, in fact, makes the identification even more certain, for the Manchild is caught up to God's throne, and it is from heaven that the Conqueror will emerge.

32. The movements from now on of this woman are not without considerable difficulties of interpretation. Her flight into the wilderness seems to have occurred in stages: first it involved persecution by the Dragon which had failed to devour her child, and continued with her flight into the wilderness by means of the two wings of the great eagle, to a place prepared by God, but with the help of the earth, which swallowed the flood with which the Dragon thought to overwhelm her. When she is safely in the wilderness, the Dragon turns its attentions to the persecution of "her seed, which keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus", which might suggest that she herself no longer kept these commandments. Omitting the time periods, it is easy to fit some of these events into history.

33. The woman was given two wings, by means of which to flee into her wilderness, and it is quite plain that the imagery is once more drawn from the Old Testament: Zechariah 5.7: This is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah . . . Behold there came forth two women . . . (who) had wings like those of a stork. . . Whither do these bear the ephah ?... To build an house in the land of Shinar: and when it is prepared she shall be set there in her own place. In both cases we have a woman originating in Israel. In both she is borne away with wings. In Revelation she is taken to the wilderness, and in Zechariah to Shinar, and there is no doubt what Shinar means. In short, it is a synonym for Babylon. And if we ask in what sense a symbolic woman, in the days of the restoration from Persian captivity (for that is the time of Zechariah's prophecy) could be said to be about to fly to Babylon, the answer can only be apostacy. And if there could be any doubt it is set at rest by the description of the woman in Zechariah: "This is wickedness: and he cast her down into the midst of the ephah, and he cast the weight of lead on the mouth thereof” (5.8).

34. The interpretation has to be pieced carefully together. We denied that there was anything wicked about the woman of the Apocalypse when we met her in 12.1, where she was about to give birth to the Son of God. But it has already been hinted that all did not remain well with her: when persecuted by the dragon she received and accepted the help of the earth; and although this preserved her from its vengeance, it seems that it also caused her to leave to "the remnant of her seed" the duty of continuing to keep the commands of God and the testimony of Jesus. She did not first appear as an apostate, but it seems that she became so before the story ends.

35. Though she is preserved by God from destruction, she is established in a position where her apostasy can take root and flourish. If we combine together the description of her as 'Wickedness' in Zechariah, and the fact that her sojourn in the wilderness is limited to a period, it appears that we are to expect two things: one is her emergence from the wilderness when this time has expired, and the other is that she will be seen in her new, true character, fully justifying the name of Wickedness given her by the prophet. At this point we have to take a leap to chapter 17 to continue her history.

36. At first sight there is nothing to connect a glorious personage such as the woman of 12.1 with the abomination disclosed in 17.3. Yet the two chapters themselves provide the link: that woman was carried into a wilderness for a period of time, and would therefore be expected to return; this one is found in a wilderness, in the only other place in the Apocalypse where such a thing is referred to at all. Couple that with the fact that the place of sojourn of the woman in Zechariah 5.11 is identified as Shinar or Babylon, the name which this woman now bears, and it becomes nearly impossible to dismiss the parallels as accidental.

37. If we are not absolutely compelled to identify the two figures as belonging to different stages of development of a single entity, it is hard to see a reasonable alternative. We repeat: if the woman of 12.14 is to remain in the wilderness for a finite period, whatever its length may be, must we not expect her to emerge at the end of it, and where else is her emergence spoken of if it be not here? Isaiah 1.21: How is the faithful city become an harlot, she that was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in her, but now murders.

38. Specific identity of the harlot Neither the possibility that natural Israel is still intended, nor the possibility that an apostate degeneration of Christian, spiritual Israel, is meant, is automatically excluded by the figure employed.

39. “Option 1” It would be possible to understand Revelation 12 and 17 as saying that is was from the natural Israel that the Lord Jesus took His birth, and this Israel suffered in part grievous persecution afterwards, but was nevertheless also befriended by the world and afforded refuge. Under these conditions the nation apostatized and so (it could be said) became a spiritual Babylon. In this event it would be the same nation which emerges in chapter 17 as restored to power, once again persecuting the saints of God as it did throughout the apostolic period during a period of authority over the nations, only to find itself ruined by those same nations in a disaster from which only the Lord Jesus Christ will be able to deliver it.

40. “Option 2” But it would also be possible to understand the same passage as saying that it is the faithful in Israel which gave spiritual birth to the Lord Jesus Christ; that it is the community which He founded on the rock of His own resurrection which then bears His name; that this community endured grievous persecution from the pagan world until it was befriended by Christendom and became corrupted; and that it is this apostate Christianity which rises to the seat of power over the nations, resumes persecution of the saints, is destroyed by the nations it rides, and is thus betrayed and overcome.

41. “difficulties in accepting either alternative” If one were obliged to choose in advance whether natural Israel, or apostate Christianity, best fitted all the facts of Revelation 12-17, the choice would have to fall on apostate Christianity. This is for the following reasons: (i) the persecution of the woman by the dragon in 12.6,13 appears in the first instance to be the affliction of a faithful people, who only later become apostate. But Israel was an unfaithful nation throughout the 'entire period at issue; (ii) the picture of Babylon the Great formed from the Old Testament is that of an international system, with many nations taking their shelter beneath its shade (Daniel 4.10-12; Jeremiah 25.14), which is better represented by an international apostate Christendom than by an isolated and isolationist Israel assuming the suggested power over the nations.

42. But surprising things have already happened in current developments, for which students of prophecy were quite unprepared. There is no reason to think that we are at the end of the surprises. It is wise to keep all possibilities in mind and hold our minds open to evaluate them as events unfold. We are not telling God what His revelation means. We are waiting humbly to find out.

43. CHAPTER 13: THE BEAST FROM THE SEA A. The activities of the Beast and its associates in these chapters are certainly latter-day ones, because: a. The Beast persecutes the Two Witnesses, who are concerned with preaching the gospel very shortly before the Lord's return; b. It is consigned to perdition, or the lake of fire, as a result of its defeat by the Lamb, and immediately before the Judgment; c. It exercises the authority of the ten kings for "one hour" (17.12).

44. B. Nevertheless, the Beast is firmly rooted in Bible history and Old Testament prophecy, having characteristics of all four beasts of Daniel 7.4-7, and therefore in some way reflecting the dominions of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. It embodies in itself the characteristics of all the world empires with which Daniel deals, and so represents the entire image of Daniel 2. For although that chapter pictures successive empires under the symbols of gold, silver, copper (sic), and iron when the kingdom of God is set up, all these metals are said to be ground to powder together by the Stone cut out without hands. All horns and heads and crowns and beasts and metals which ever represented the rebellious powers of men will be demolished at a stroke and given to the flames.

45. 17.9: The seven heads are seven mountains … and they are seven kings It is already impossible to accept the interpretation offered by continuous-historic interpreters. Adam Clarke supposes that John is telling us of seven systems of government in the Roman Empire: Kings; Dictators; Decimvirs; Consuls; Triumvirs; and Emperors: of which the last would be the one existing in John's time. The one yet to come on this view would be the "Carlovingian Patriciate", a system set up in Rome by Charlemagne, and said to have lasted a mere 45 years. This view arouses total incredulity in the present writer. To what purpose would John and ourselves be invited to look back more than a millennium before Christ to governments existing in Rome when even the Babylonian Empire was in the remote future?

46. The Speaker's Commentary offers (but not with approval) another list, ranging from Kings to the Popes before the attainment of temporal power, while Brother John Thomas, lists the following: Regal, Consular, Dictatorial, Tribunitial, Imperial (-31 to 476), and Gothic (476 to 554). But all this seems far removed from the purpose of this chapter, which it is very hard to see concerning itself with the trivialities of the internal organization of the Roman state. Brother Peter Watkins is surely right thus far in asking us to direct our attention to the beasts of Daniel 7; but if the first beast is Babylon, with one head (Daniel 7.4); the second Medo-Persia also with one (7.5); the third Greece with four (7.6), and the fourth Rome with one (7.7), making seven in all, then the fifth fallen head would be the third of the Greek four, as he supposes, so that "one is" would be the fourth of these, with the Roman head yet to come! On every count the interpretation of this is difficult, and the solutions offered tortuous.

47. We may, after all, be driven back to a vintage solution of this problem which sees the Beast as representing the whole succession of human kingdoms in biblical lands, so starting earlier than Babylon. In this event the heads which have fallen would be (i) Egypt, (ii) Assyria; (iii) Babylon; (iv) Medo-Persia; (v) Greece. The one which still exists in John's day and is represented by its fragments now would be (vi) Rome; and the one yet to come would be (vii) the 'man of sin' regime to be destroyed by the Lord with the brightness of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2.8). It fits in well with the assurance that when the last phase arises it will continue only a little while (17.10). The kings of the earth will share their power with it for only "one hour" (17.12; 18.10,17,19). The Beast dominated by the Harlot would be the seventh and short-lived head, and the Beast standing alone in all its arrogance would be the eighth and last.

48. Chapter 20: THE BINDING OF THE DRAGON, THE JUDGMENTS, THE THOUSAND YEARS In favor of a literal reading of the number, it is often said that a 1000-year reign of Jesus would neatly finish off the antitypical creation-week, so that six thousand years of human history would be terminated by a thousand-day sabbath of millennial rest. But there are important reasons why this view should be treated with reserve: 1) We do not know for sure whether there will have been 6000 years precisely, or even approximately, of human history between the Fall and the Second Advent:

49. Can a post-Millennial revolt be contemplated? First let us face the objections raised against it:

50. 1 The kingdom of Christ is to produce lasting peace and godliness. If the Lord is to "reign until He has put all enemies under His feet" (1 Corinthians 15.25), then enemies do exist which have to dealt with during this period, and "putting under feet" is not the language of peaceful attainment. Zechariah 14.16-18, however unhappy the reading of it may be, does speak of men with rebellious hearts who will need to be coerced into rendering to God the worship He demands.