“Isaw One Angel who had stood in the sun”.
In the original text it is not simply angelos, an angel, but emphatically hena angelon one angel. This angel is particularized as one that had stood, hestota, in the sun. The English Version renders this perfect participle by the sign of the present, standing. I have preferred to adhere to the literal, however true that this one angel comes at length to “shine as the sun in the kingdom of the Father”. It is doubtless not accidental that the Revelator said to John, that the angel had stood in the sun. This reference to a past position of the angel would afford a clue to his identity, and enable the reader to distinguish him from the many other angels of the Apocalypse.
The only place in the previous chapters where a body of people having a mission are found “in the sun, ” is in the twelfth chapter. This angel-body is there styled “a woman”, who is said to “have been clothed with the sun”. A community clothed with the sun is “standing in the sun” so long as it continues so invested. But this angel-woman did not continue to stand in the sun; for “she fled into the wilderness” where she remained 1260 years. It could therefore be said of her that she had stood in the sun; but has never stood there since. It was a great military success that placed her temporarily “in the sun” — the conquest of the pagan Dragon-government by her deliverer Constantine, who, in this particular, was a type of her greater and eternal deliverer, the King of kings and Lord of lords, whose conquest of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, will place her in the sun, to enlighten the earth with glory.
- The Loud Voice
“And the one angel shouted with a loud voice”.
This loud voice of the one angel is one of the voices of the Seventh Vial (ch. 16:18): preparatory to Ephraim being shot forth like lightning from the Judah-bow, in the hand of Yahweh Elohim. It is the loud voice of the rainbowed angel as of a lion roaring. This had been preceded by a loud voice, announcing in all the midheaven, or “Air”, into which the Seventh Vial will be poured, that the Hour of Judgment, so long threatened, had actually arrived (ch. 14:6). This is a voice of peace, and friendship, and good will, to all who shall obey it; but terrible in its consequences to those who shall neglect or reject it. The angel who proclaims this loud voice, or message, to the nations, “flies in midheaven” — in the Apocalyptic “midheaven,” which is peopled by Birds of Prey, then ready to take wing when the loud voice of the one angel shall reach them. It is the same angel who makes proclamation in midheaven, that invites the fowls of the midheaven to assemble to the Deity’s banquet of slaughtered kings, military offices, chaplains, soldiers of all ranks, and so forth. The angel-proclaimer in both cases is of the Woman, then no longer a down-trodden and afflicted fugitive, but “the Holy City, New Jerusalem, prepared as a Bride, who had been adorned for her husband” (ch. 21:2). The state, the church, and the army of the kingdom are then all in the hands of the saints; who will tolerate no other states, churches, and armies, than their own. The man or people, who will not accept their absolute sovereignty in secular and spiritual affairs must be tormented, and suffered to enjoy no rest day nor night (ch. 14:10,11). They offer peace on condition of unqualified submission; otherwise there is no escape from being devoured by the Birds of Prey.
- The Birds of Prey
“The One Angel shouted with a loud voice saying to all the fowls flying in midheaven, Come hither, and assemble together for the banquet of the powerful Deity, that ye may eat the flesh of kings”.
The proclamation of good news in midheaven by the Saints (and there is none else to do it) is not only to warn the nations of what is about to break forth upon them, but so to operate upon the scattered Israelites, as to make them willing to acknowledge Jesus as David’s Son and Lord, and to place themselves at his disposal ; so that whatever he, as the Prophet like unto Moses, may command to be done, they will readily and zealously obey under the direction, orders, and superintendence of those of his Brethren he may appoint. The saints will have, not only to make proclamation, but to consummate such a military organization as will make Israelites and the “mixed multitude” who accept their proclamation, bodies of efficient soldiers in all the countries where such may be found. The means developing this result will be “a noise,” and “a shaking,” whereby the very dried bones of Israel shall come together, bone to bone, and flesh and sinews shall come upon them, and they shall live politically, and stand upon their feet an exceeding great army (Ezek. 37).
This standing up of Israel upon their feet is the political resurrection predicted by Balaam, and recorded by Moses in Numbers 23:24, saying, “Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion; he shall not lie down until he eat the prey, and drink the blood of the slain. His King shall be higher than Agag (or Gog), and his kingdom shall be exalted. Ail brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath, as it were, the strength of an unicorn; He shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows” (ch. 24:7,8).
When all the necessary preparations shall have been completed, the time will have arrived for the Star of Jacob to set these forces into motion, for the purpose of “destroying him that remaineth of the city”; and in the work of destruction, of hewing their way out from the wilderness of the peoples into the land of Israel. In the development of this work, “it shall come to pass” that they will be an united people: “the envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they shall fly upon (as birds of prey) the shoulders of the Philistines westward; they shall wholly spoil the children of the east” (Isa. 11:13,14). Thus, it will be seen by these expressions, “eating the prey and drinking the blood of the slain,” “eating up the nations his enemies,” and “flying upon their shoulders,” applied to Israel in the time of their political resurrection, and under the leadership of the Four Living Ones full of eyes, one of whom hath the face of an Eagle, and another of a Lion, that they are aptly represented Apocalyptically as “the fowls flying in midheaven”. Israel will do valiantly under the Saints, and are the instruments in their hands by whom the kings and their armies will be devoured. As then Cyrus was styled “a ravenous bird from the east” in coming against Babylon to destroy it; and the powers hostile to Israel were termed birds (Isa. 46:11; Jer. 12:9); so Israelites are symbolized by flesh-devouring fowls, when they shall be summoned into activity against the “unclean and hateful birds” of Babylon the Great.
The Apocalyptic banquet for the fowls of the midheaven, is the last period of judgment upon the worshippers of the Beast and his Image. The loud voice of the one angel calls them to the work of slaughter. Babylon having fallen, the work of the third angel has now to be executed upon her sympathizing survivors, the kings of the earth and their armies. John saw them already gathered in battle array; and he saw the fowls gathered who were to devour them — the ravenous birds of him who rides the goodly horse, and his hosts of the heaven. In the two concluding verses of this chapter, he informs us of the result of the conflict. The secular and ecclesiastical organizations styled the Beast and the False Prophet, the European Constitution of the nations in church and state, is abrogated, and finally destroyed, in the burning fire, issuing as a fiery stream from before the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:9,10): while the armies in the field are cut up and dispersed by the Israelitish Sword of the Mighty One, who continues the kingdoms of the world, but appropriates their diadems as the spoil of the victor (ch. 11:15).
- The Lake of Fire
“The two had been cast alive into the Lake of Fire burning with brimstone”.
A lake is a tract of standing water. The lake into which the Beast and the False Prophet are to be cast, is not, however, of water, but of fire. A lake of fire is a tract of land in a state of fiery ignition. A tract of land may be in a state of conflagration, or it may not. When a country is in its normal state, it is Apocalyptically neither a lake of water nor of fire, but simply “the earth,” out of which the Beast came; but, if that country be thrown into a state of destructive conflagration, it becomes Apocalyptically a lake of fire. Hence, the lake into which the Beast and False Prophet are cast, is all that tract of country upon which they exist as the secular and ecclesiastical constitution of the inhabitants. To cast such into the lake of fire in which they are destroyed, is to kindle an intense conflagration in the territory of their dominion, which is not extinguished, or quenched, until they are consumed; and the remnant of their subjects, who survive the fiery ordeal, transfer their allegiance to the tormenting and conquering power.
The Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, with their officials, are the symbols of what the Lord Jesus in his discourse recorded in Matt.
- styles “the Devil and his Angels;” for whom to pur to aionion, the fire of the aionian judgment has been prepared. The Beast and the False Prophet are symbols of relation, and comparatively modern developments upon the original Dragon-territory. Their essential spiritual attributes are the same — Sin-Flesh Iniquity in secular and ecclesiastical manifestation upon the Roman Habitable. This is the Apocalyptic arena, with a dominion, however, considerably augmented in modern times. The title, “the Devil and his Angels” is, in effect, inscribed upon the Dragon in the words, “the Dragon, the old Serpent, who is Devil and Satan”. His origin is enrooted in rebellious human nature, and therefore he is “Devil;” and being always, in whatever form he may exist, the enemy of the Truth and righteousness of the Deity, and the adversary of its adherents, he is “Satan”. Upon these principles, the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, with their Horn-appendages, are “the Devil and his Angels”. These are the fuel of the fiery lake, or “Tophet ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; Yahweh hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of Yahweh, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it” (Isa. 30:33). The effect of the fire upon the Dragon-king, or power, is its suppression for a thousand years; upon his horns, the appropriation of their kingdoms by the Saints, and the destruction of all armies; but upon the Beast and False Prophet organizations, their utter annihilation and eternal extinction.
The things represented by these symbols, however, are not the only wood, or fuel, of the lake of fire. The reader will remember that before the Judgment Seat of Christ in the wilderness of Teman, there were two classes of saints in Christ Jesus constitutionally; the one class consisting of “the called, the chosen, and faithful;” or as Paul styles them in 1 Cor. 3:12, “gold, silver, and precious stones,” which are made manifest as such in the day when things are revealed by fire; and the other class con
sisting of “the called,” but not “chosen,” because not “faithful;” or, as Paul styles them in the same place, “wood, hay, and stubble”. The constitution and destiny of these two classes, though originally built upon the same foundation, is widely divergent. The gold, silver, and precious stones, of the New Jerusalem community, are fire proof. Like Shad- rach, Meshach, and Abednego, they can dwell with devouring fire, and with the burnings of Olahm; fire having no power over their bodies to singe a hair of their heads, nor to leave its smell upon them. Not so, however, the wood, hay, and stubble. They cannot continue to exist in fire, being in nature destructible. The judicial inspection of his household, having separated the refuse and the vile, from those “accounted worthy to obtain of the aion, and of the resurrection;” the rejected, by virtue of the sentence pronounced upon them by Christ, saying, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into the aionian fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels,” forthwith enter upon their journey to the place of exile or torment; or, in the words of Jesus, “they go away into aionian punishment;” while the righteous, by their being quickened, enter into aionian life.
It may be well to remark here, that aionian punishment, is so called, not as expressive of its duration, but of its epoch of execution. The epoch of judgment is the forty years of the Seventh Vial, which precede the commencement of the thousand years. These forty years are the course of time, or aion, constituting the epoch in which punishment is inflicted upon resurrected individuals, and the living worshippers of the Beast and his Image. It is therefore styled aionian, or the punishment pertaining to the aion of judgment.
Neither is aionian life so called because of its duration, but because it is the life pertaining to a course, or aion, which circles around the kingdom of the Deity. Of this there is to be no end (Luke 1:33); so, therefore, the course will be always circling. The life is, consequently, eternal; not because the word aionian signifies essentially unlimited duration; but because the thing to be possessed, and to which the course belongs, is declared to be endless. Hence, aionian life is life pertaining to the aion, or course of the kingdom into which the Saints, approved and immortalized at the tribunal, go away and enter upon, in its dispensatio- nal developments, when they have established the kingdomt.
t Aionian life, like aionian judgment and aionian fire does not of itself denote the duration of the life, judgment or fire, even though the word has been rendered eternal and “everlasting”. Rather it indicates that the things denoted (judgment, fire or life) are those relating or pertaining to the aion or age defined. For example, it is said of Sodom and Gomorrah that they are “set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7). But that fire is not still burning. It burned, and continued to burn until its work, was accomplished in the age of judgment incidental to it, and the cities were entirely consumed. So with the “everlasting judgment” and “everlasting fire” and “everlasting punishment” of the future (Matt. 25:41,46): the word in each case is aionion, and
When the wood, hay, and stubble, as unprofitable servants, are cast into outer darkness, they disperse themselves over the countries of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet; which, by the judgments coming upon them through the second and third angels, are to be kindled into a lake of fire. Thus the fuel of the fiery lake is increased. “Now will I rise, saith Yahweh; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself. And the people shall be as the burnings of lime; as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire” — in the European lake of fire (Isa. 33:1017). Because of poverty, famine, pestilence, war, and the consciousness of what they have lost by their unfaithfulness, they will find there only “weeping and gnashing of teeth;” and though they may call upon Abraham to send a Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool their tongues, tormented in the flame; were Abraham to reply to them he would not grant their request; but addressing them as sons, would say, Remember that in your lifetimes ye received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and ye are tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (Luke 16:24). Abraham being in the kingdom when this answer is returned, shows that the place of torment is not accessible at will, nor territorially continuous with Palestine; in other words, the Mediterranean Gulf separates the Lake of Fire countries from the kingdom of Israel. They are the countries invaded by the King of kings upon the white horse with his hosts of the heaven, styled, in ch. 14:10, “the holy angels and the Lamb;” in whose presence the countries are kindled into flame; and the resurrected exiles, and the worshippers of the Beast, are all tormented with fire and brimstone; and made to drink of the unmixed wine of the wrath of the Deity, poured out into the cup of his indignation. Thus “Death and Hades,” or the condemned resurrected exiles, are cast into the lake of fire, which is to them
denotes the fire, punishment or life, “pertaining to the age”. The judgment will continue until all are brought into subjection to Christ; the fire will bum until all that is to be consumed is destroyed, but the life of the age will never end because it is immortal. Paul wrote: “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality (shall be given) eternal life”, or the life of the age which will be immortal, or everlasting life. Where the present tense is used as indicating the present possession of life, the same principles should be observed. Those who perform the will of Yahweh and His Son “have it” in the sense that it is promised by God who will perform, and whose promise is so sure (and eternal life is a matter of promise — 1 John 2:25), that He “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17). Therefore, such expressions as John 17:3: “This is life eternal that they might know Thee ...” can signify, this is the basis upon which life eternal will be granted. Similar forms of expression are found in the Word. Example: “This is condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness ...” This is the basis of condemnation etc. Again: “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him. . .” Rather, this is the basis upon which the work of God will proceed, that ye believe on him. Again John 12:50: “His commandment is life everlasting” — His commandment is the basis upon which life aionian will be given. Some have advocated that aionian zoe, eternal life, is today possessed in some way, and in pressing this theory beyond the limits of Scripture, have made havoc of faith. See further comments in Vol. 1, p. 365 — Publishers.
“the Second Death;” for by the fiery judgments of the lake, death and corruption overtake them a second time, and their “sorer punishment” is consummated according to their works (ch. 20:13-15; 21:8; Heb. 10:26-29).
Such is the locality and the fuel of the lake of fire; the fire itself that consumes the wood, hay, and stubble, or “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars” (ch. 21:8), is the burning anger of Yahweh’s Name, as it appears in Isaiah 30:27, saying, “Behold, the Name of Yah- weh cometh from far, his anger burning, and the burden heavy; his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire. And he shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones”. As Paul, therefore, truly saith, “our God is a consuming fire”.
Such is the fire — the anger and indignation of the Deity, descending with consuming effect upon the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, in the form of pestilence, famine, and war. The furnace from which this stream of devouring fire is poured forth, is the capital of the Great King, “whose fire” saith the prophet, “is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem”. From thence, when he hath established himself there, “he will send a fire into Magog, and among them that dwell confidently in the isles; and they shall know that I am Yahweh” (Ezek. 39:6). He that rides the white horse, and the hosts of the heaven riding the same troops, are “the Angel having power over fire” (ch. 14:18), whose face is as it were the sun, and his feet, planted upon the sea and upon the earth, are as pillars of fire (ch. 10:1,2) which he mingles with the sea (ch. 15:2). Thus, “the beast is slain, his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame” (Dan. 7:11).