January 20, 2013

• Part Four: Christ's Prophecy of Apostasy

  My source for Parts One, Two and Three here revealed:

  Excerpts from the Preface to

  The Apocalypse: A Series of Special Lectures on the Revelation of Jesus Christ.       

                                                                                                                             By Joseph A. Seiss

  … Though it is the great prophetic Book of the New Testament, the last of all the writings of Inspiration, a special message from the ascended Savior to His Churches on earth, and pressed upon every one's attention with uncommon urgency, there are religious guides, sworn to teach "the whole counsel of God," who make a merit of not understanding it, and of not wishing to occupy themselves with it.

  …there is no part of Biblical exposition in which real guides are so scarce, or fresh effort so much needed.

  The theological standpoint of the author is that of Protestant orthodoxy. He claims to be in thorough accord with the great Confessions of the early Church and of the Reformation. Contrary to these he has nothing to teach, though he is quite convinced that they have not, in every direction, altogether exhausted the contents of the Scriptures. Their Eschatology, particularly, is very summary, rendering further inquiry and clearer illustration desirable. These Confessions themselves also legitimate and provide for such further investigation of the Divine Oracles. It is contrary both to them and the Scriptures, to undertake to warn off from the study of anything which God has caused to be written for us, provided that no part of settled Christian faith be contravened. Not against that whereunto the Church has hitherto attained, but on the basis of it, it is the vocation of Christians to go on exploring for the full truth which God has given for their learning and profit.

  From the beginning, the author of these Lectures was led to take the inspired title of this Book as the proper key to its contents, and to that he has adhered throughout. "The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ," does not mean a communicated message, but the coming, appearing, manifestation, uncovering, presentation, of Jesus Christ in person. …Here Jesus Christ is the genitive of object. The Apocalypse would therefore be the coming, revealing, appearing, or manifestation of Himself, the Revelation of Him.   "The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ," means "the unveiling of Christ in His majesty, as His glorious appearing." …when the Holy Ghost speaks of "The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ," by the same necessity of language the only admissible idea is, that it is Christ who experiences or undergoes the Apocalypse affirmed. The only Apocalypses of Jesus Christ that we read of in the New Testament, are personal manifestations of Himself. And it is thus against all the laws of speech, and against the whole usus loquendi of the sacred writers, to understand the inspired title of this Book as referring to anything but the revelation, or personal manifestation, of Jesus Christ in the great Day of Judgment, as everywhere foretold in the holy Scriptures.

  So the Book's own description of its subject-matter pronounces, and to this every succeeding vision accords when taken in the plain straightforward sense of the record. It is thus unmistakably proven that we have here a portrayal, not of a few dim outlines of the fortunes of the Church in its march through this present world, but a scenic account of the actual occurrences of that period "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed (ἐν τῆ ἀποκαλύψει τοῦ κυρίου—in the Apocalypse of the Lord Jesus) from heaven with His mighty Angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day." (2 Thess. 1:7-10.) This is The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, expressly so called in the passage; and this it is that John was made to see, and commanded to write, that all might learn exactly how things are then to be ordered. 

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  I hope you enjoyed and were edified by this series.

  Jerry

  • 1:49 pm
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