A Bible School Manual: Studies in the Book of Revelation: An introduction, analysis, and notes, containing a concise interpretation according to the symbolic view, numerous references to authorities, and general mention of other interpretations, with the text of the American revised version edited in paragraphs, for the use of Bible students — John Shaqi
A Bible School Manual: Studies in the Book of Revelation: An introduction, analysis, and notes, containing a concise interpretation according to the symbolic view, numerous references to authorities, and general mention of other interpretations, with the text of the American revised version edited in paragraphs, for the use of Bible studentsHunter, Stephen Alexander
Religion
A Bible School Manual: Studies in the Book of Revelation: An introduction, analysis, and notes, containing a concise interpretation according to the symbolic view, numerous references to authorities, and general mention of other interpretations, with the text of the American revised version edited in paragraphs, for the use of Bible students
Hunter, Stephen Alexander
Bible. Revelation -- Commentaries
Prophecy in this view is looked upon as much broader in its scope than the
_fore_telling of things that are future. This element should be regarded
as subordinate to the general purpose of prophecy, which is the
_forth_telling of the mind of God.(6) And we should avoid that “dwarfed
sense of the word prophecy in modern speech” which leads most readers (and
even interpreters) to fasten upon a revelation of the secrets of the
future. For it is evident that “Old Testament history and prophecy make
prominent another kind of revelation—the unveiling of the ideal, as when
the pattern of things sacred was unfolded to Moses in the mount”.(7) In
the true sense of prophecy it manifestly contains both these conceptions,
viz. the Prophetico‐predictive, and the Prophetico‐ideal, which enter in
varying proportion into the great messages of old. But it is believed by
many of our best authorities, and it will be found in a careful study of
the book of Revelation, that the prophetic element is not chiefly
predictive in the strict sense, and can for the most part be best
interpreted as the unveiling of the divine ideal which is being inwrought
in the sphere of human life, or the manifestation of the divine purpose
which is discovered as interpenetrating all the moral struggle and
apparent contradictions of earthly experience, and which is leading up to
the final victory; and only such glimpses of the future are given as serve
to assure a better comprehension of this main idea.(8)
The two most obvious principles that pervade the book of Revelation and
underlie its ever changing scenes, are, _first_, God’s method of
government in the world by the trial of his people and the judgment of the
wicked; and, _second_, God’s method of developing character in moral
agents by moral conflict. Accepting these as in a measure interpretative
of the ways of God with men, the Apocalypse approaches the standpoint of
the divine perspective, and traces the great lines of the divine purpose
as they traverse the entire field of human history. It makes Christ’s
relation to his people both in time and in eternity the ground of an
exhaustive inquiry into the mysteries of earthly life, which aims not only
to discover God in the trend of history but also to interpret God through
history wrought out to its end. It affords glimpses of God’s far reaching
plan in the process of redemption, leading up to the final salvation of
unnumbered multitudes; it finds the key to earth’s long‐drawn‐out story of
sin and suffering, of conflict and of death, in wider victory at larger
cost; and it teaches us to look calmly out beyond the ebb and flow of
tides and noons to the shoreless, timeless life that ever abides in the
presence of God. To the heart of faith it speaks of an unwavering trust
when days are dark and storms fill the sky; like a clear voice out of the
night it tells of the coming day; and with persuasive force its visions
bring man face to face with God, his Creator, Redeemer, and Eternal
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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