the great" (xi. 18; xix. 5) in the community of believers. All believers are kings and priests unto God. They are priests because they offer up to him at all times the grateful incense of praise and prayer (v. 8; viii. 3), and they are kings because they are unsubdued by hostile powers and are destined to reign with Christ (v. 10; xx. 6). Over suffering, persecution, and death God will make his saints victorious, "and they shall reign unto the ages of the ages" (xxii. 5).

CHAPTER IV

THE ANTICHRISTIAN WORLD-POWER

It was a fixed conviction in the apostolic age that some special manifestation of wickedness would precede Messiah's coming. In the Synoptics we read of false Christs and false prophets who should arise and deceive, if possible, the very elect (Mt. xxiv. 24). The Pauline Apocalypse speaks of an apostasy and of a man of sin who, with blasphemous pretensions, should exalt himself above all that is called God or is worshipped (2 Thess. ii. 4). We have seen reasons for believing that this "mystery of lawlessness" (v. 7) was regarded as a Jewish antichristian fanaticism which, it was expected, would break out in a hostile demonstration against the Gospel. If this view is correct, the Roman power is viewed as a restraint upon Jewish hostility. In the Epistles of John Antichrist is an incipient Gnosticism which denies that Jesus is come in the flesh (I. iv. 3; II. 7). In the Johannine Apocalypse, however, this antichristian power is seen in the Roman Empire. The hostility of Judaism to Christianity is, indeed, recognized, but this representation is quite overshadowed by the description of "the beast" the gigantic might of the Roman world-empire. We note in this description a widely different attitude towards the existing civil power from that expressed by Paul in Rom. xiii. The apostle had counselled submission to the constituted authority because the civil government was God's minister for the good of its subjects (v. 4). But by its cruel abuse of its power the empire had ceased to be the benefactor and had become the enemy of mankind. It was no longer viewed as the representative of divine order and law on earth, but as a brutal and blas

phemous monster whom God should slay with the thunderbolts of his wrath.

Throughout the earlier chapters of the Apocalypse we meet with references to hostile powers which we may generically designate as Antichrist. Sometimes these powers are of Jewish, sometimes of Roman, origin. At length in chapters xii., xiii., and xvii. the symbolism derived from the Book of Daniel is employed to portray these evil forces in all their cruel and blasphemous wickedness. Here, as before, the powers in question are partly Jewish, though chiefly Roman. However various may have been the literary sources of our present Apocalypse, all its parts have this characteristic in common: they all depict and protest against some signal form of opposition to the Christian faith. Even the salutations and messages to the churches contain allusions to the foes of Christ. When he comes in glory, they that have pierced him shall see him, and "all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of him" (i. 7). According to the traditional interpretation of i. 9, the seer himself is a victim of persecution, and has been banished to the island of Patmos because he has preached the word of God and testified to the truth of Christ. Heresies have invaded the churches. False apostles have seduced believers from their first love (ii. 3, 4). The Christians are summoned to a deadly conflict with evil forces. "Overcome" is the watchword of the Christian life. Fidelity, involving, if need be, submission to suffering and death, is the price of the promised heavenly blessedness. An hour of fearful trial is coming upon the whole world; the believer must be steadfast and watchful "that no one take his crown (iii. 11). Satan has taken possession of Judaism and established within it his throne (ii. 13). The trial and imprisonment of Christians have already begun (ii. 10, 13). Idolatry

1 So Gebhardt, Trench, Simcox, Bousset. Two other interpretations are possible: (1) The seer was in Patmos for the purpose of preaching the word of God. (2) He was there to receive the revelation of God's word in vision. So Bleek, Lücke, De Wette, Düsterdieck, Weiss. I regard this interpretation as more probably correct.

and impurity-portrayed under the names, Nicolaitans, Balaamites, and Jezebel (ii. 6, 14, 20) are exercising their seductive power upon the harassed and oppressed Christian communities.

And now are heard the mutterings of the coming storm of judgment. When the sixth seal one of the dread mysteries of the future is opened, there is a great convulsion of nature; the heavens are rolled together as a scroll, and the mighty ones of earth hide themselves in caves and rocks to shield themselves "from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come, and who is able to stand?" (vi. 16, 17). Deeper roll the thunders of judgment as the last mystery is unlocked (ch. viii.). Dread portents follow one another in quick succession. The golden censer which had held the prayers of the saints is now filled with the fire of judgment and cast upon the earth (vv. 3-5). The prayers of God's people are heard and vengeance descends upon their enemies. Woe after woe, plague after plague, is inflicted upon the wicked world. A fiery tempest overwhelms Antichrist in utter destruction (ch. ix.). The sacred city which is now "spiritually called Sodom and Egypt" (xi. 8) is doomed, and as it disappears, the spiritual theocracy, the heavenly city of God, emerges, and triumphant voices are heard to cry: "The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign for ever and ever." "We give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, which art and which wast; because thou hast taken thy great power, and didst reign" (xi. 15, 17).

The evil world-power is more directly described in the middle chapters of the book. Without attempting to determine the meaning of the details in the description, we may point out the chief features of the apocalyptic picture of "the beast." When the woman, "arrayed with the sun" (xii. 1), — symbol of the Jewish theocracy, — brings forth her son, the Messiah, a satanic power, pictured as a great red dragon, appears and persecutes the woman and her seed. We hear the clash of opposing forces, but "the

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earth helped the woman (xii. 16) and defeated the wicked purpose of the "accuser of the brethren" (v. 10). And now the antichristian power appears under another symbol. A beast comes up from the sea (xiii. 1), that is, from the abyss, the haunt of the demons (xi. 7; xvii. 8; ix. 1, 11). His horns, heads, and diadems represent the manifold powers of Rome and the blasphemous pretensions of its emperors. The description is modelled upon Dan. vii. 7 sq. where the Græco-Syrian kingdom is pictured as a "beast, terrible, and powerful, and strong exceedingly." The whole world does homage to this monster. His power seems limitless and his sway unbounded. He revels in blasphemies and reeks with the blood of God's people (vv. 6, 7). A second beast now comes up from the land (xiii. 11). This monster aids the first. He maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast" (xiii. 12). We seem to have here a symbol of false prophecy acting in alliance with Roman persecution. The political power of Rome and the religious fanaticism of Judaism are conceived of as coöperating for the extermination of the Church. We have seen that the Antichrist of Paul and of the Synoptics was Jewish. We seem to have here a trace of the same idea, though it is quite overshadowed by the representation of Rome as the chief embodiment of satanic hostility to Christianity. Antichrist is primarily Rome, and Jewish hostility is a secondary and subordinate manifestation of its spirit. "The combination of the two beasts. brings before us a development of the anticipations formed of Antichrist. Originally Antichrist was conceived, not as a heathen world-power, but as a false Messiah. Now the work of Satan was seen in that heathen world-power. Unwilling wholly to give up the idea of the false Messiah and his deceit, men imagined the false prophet, at least, accompanying heathenism as its servant and ally. Accordingly, the symbols, as we find them in this prophecy, represent a transition stage between the Jewish Antichrist and heathen Antichristianity."1

1 Weizsäcker, Apostolic Age, II. 188 (orig. p. 515).