“Having turned,” says John, “I saw seven golden lighstands;” and in the last verse of the chapter, he records the signification of them as communicated to him by the Spirit, saying, “the seven lightstands which thou seest are Seven Ecclesias.”
Having ascertained what the apostle meant by “being in spirit,” the next consideration is, Where was he conveyed to? and then, What did he behold there?
While conditioned thus, he tells us that he came to be “in spirit"— egenomen en pneumati. By reference to Ezekiel we find that when he was about simply to deliver a prophetic discourse, he introduced it by saying, “the Word of Yahweh came unto me, saying;” but when he was about to relate a prophetic vision he had seen, he prefaces his description by informing us that “there was upon me the hand of Yahweh, and he carried me out in spirit of Yahweh.” When “in spirit, ” then, he both sees visions, and hears, and then proceeds to nar¬rate. This was the case with John.
SYMBOLIC VISION OF THE SPIRIT-NAME.
“1 am the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and ending, saith the Lord, the Who is, and Who was,
and Who is coming, the Omnipotent” APOC. 1 . 8.
These words announce to us that He who is coming is “The Al¬mighty;” also that this almighty one pertains to the past, the present, and the future; that he has a “beginning” and also “an ending,” as symbolized by the first letter of the Greek alphabet “TO A,” and by the last, or “ TO 8 ”—“the Alpha and the Omega.”
The personage to be seen, is indicated in the next sentence as he who was “pierced.” Every eye shall see him whom they pierced; as saith the Spirit in Zech.
Thirdly, eis aera, rendered “in the air,” is devoid of “the” in the Greek. It may be rendered in various ways, according to the prepo¬sition used, and with or without an indefinite article. I prefer that which may be found in harmony with Paul’s use of the word else¬where, when speaking of the administration of the existing order, com¬monly styled “world.” Thus in Eph.
In the system of nature whence the symbol before us is taken, clouds are opaque congeries of aqueous particles, exhaled from the waters of the earth into the air by the electricity of the expanse. This being their nature and origin, they furnish a beautiful and expressive symbol representative of those who are present with the Lord in his apocalypse.
“BEHOLD he is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and whosoever pierced him;
and all the tribes of the earth shall wail before him. Yea, verily; so let it be.” APOC. 1:7.
In these words is an exclamation which is designed to direct the reader’s attention to Jesus and the Saints, as the 6 ^yo^Evor, ho Ercho- menos, the One Yahweh who is coming as the anointed with the Seven Spirits—“Behold, he is coming with the clouds.”
In response to the salutation from the Deity manifested by spirit in Jesus Anointed, John, as the representative of earth’s future kings, ascribes to him as their Prince, “the glory and the supremacy during the Aions of the Aions” In the English version, those words in italics<