“And a Great Sign appeared in the Heaven; a Woman who had been invested with the Sun, and the Moon under her feet, and upon her head a wreath of Twelve Stars. ”
In studying the Apocalypse, the student cannot fail being impressed with a notable peculiarity, frequently illustrated, of its structural arrangement. The peculiarity is that of stating in the beginning first, that which is to be executed last. Thus, in the first chapter, the coming of Yahweh in clouds is announced; and his presence is symbolically exhibited: but it is not until the preterminal epoch of the sixth vial that He actually appears.
The end of the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse conducts the reader into what Jeremiah styles, “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” out of which he shall be saved (Ch. 30:7) — a time in which there are “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail” (Apoc.
1. And a great sign appeared in the heaven; a woman who had been invested with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head and a wreath of twelve stars. 2. And being pregnant she cries being in pangs and straining to bring forth.
End of the “rest for a little season,” when the “Despot Holy and True” avenges the blood of the souls under the altar, upon them that dwell upon the earth. A great earthquake inaugurates this day of vengeance. The woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, appears in the Roman Heaven invested with imperial dignity and glory. Her son, having triumphed over the Great Red Dragon, which sought to destroy him, becomes the sovereign ruler of the nations.
FROM A.D. 311
THE LAODICEAN STATE
Vol. 1 pp. 428,449; Vol. 2 pp. 87,89,276
The first four and the Sixth Seals representative of the judicial manner of “taking out of the way” the Pagan Constitution of the “Dreadful and Terrible Fourth Beast,” which withheld the revel
The Holy Body Politic is measured — the period of its down-treading by Gentile barbarism is measured. The Court of the Gentiles will continue to exist a longer time than their trampling of the Holy City. Not being measured, it does not appear how much longer it will continue; but as the Holy Polity is to destroy the Court and its sin-powers, it follows necessarily, that the altar-worshipping and sackcloth prophesying of the Body, must come to an end before judgment is given to it.
John’s measuring was restricted to the One Body, the mystical body of Christ, the saints. He was expressly commanded to excommunicate all the Gentiles not of the One Body.
The altar in the text is the altar of sacrifice. Had it been the altar of incense it would have been specified, as in ch. 8:3, “the golden altar before the throne. ” The altar John measured was the altar under which the saints lie, who are slain for the word of the Deity, as in ch. 6:9.