《Commentaryon Revelation》(William Newell)
Commentator
American Bible teacher and pastor. Born May 22, 1868, William Reed Newell attended Wooster (Ohio) College, graduating in 1891. After studies at Princeton and Oberlin Seminaries, he pastored the Bethesda Congregational Church in Chicago until 1895, when Moody invited him to become the assistant superintendent of Moody Bible Institute under R.A. Torrey. In this position Newell demonstrated his extraordinary gift of Bible exposition. Great audiences in Chicago, St. Louis and Toronto flocked to hear his city-wide Bible classes, leading to the publication of his widely-known commentaries, especially Romans Verse-by-Verse, Hebrews Verse-by-Verse, and The Book of Revelation.
During this period, Newell wrote the beloved Gospel hymn At Calvary. He was called into the presence of the One he gladly owned as his King on April 1, 1956. Few men have had a clearer grasp of the magnitude of God's grace in Christ or have been able to convey it with such lasting results.
00 Introduction
Revelation Overview
Appendix 1
Hymns of Christ’s singers through the night of the dark ages:
For They Saw The Morning Star!
3rd Century-Clement of Alexandria: “Shepherd of Tender Youth†(earliest Christian hymn).
4th Century-Ambrose of Milan:
“The dawn is sprinkling in the east
Its golden shower, as day flows in;
Fast mount the pointed shafts of light;
Farewell to darkness and to sin.â€
5th Century-Claudianus Mamertus:
“Sing, my tongue, the Savior’s triumph!â€
Anatolius of Constantinople:
(a) “Fierce was the wild billow,†(b) “The day is past and over.â€
6th Century-Gregory the Great:
“O Christ, our King, Creator, Lord!â€
St. Hilary of Aries:
“Thou art the world’s true Morning Star!â€
Venantius Fortunatus:
“The royal banners forward go!â€
7th Century-Andrew of Crete:
“Christian, dost thou see them?â€
8th Century-Stephen of St. Sabas:
“Art thou weary?â€
9th Century-Rabanus Maurass:
“Come, O Creator, Spirit Blest!â€
Joseph of the Studium:
“Jesus, Lord of life eternal†;
also, “Safe home, safe home.â€
Theodistus of the Studium:
“Jesus, Name all names above!â€
10th Century-Metrophanes of Smyrna:
“O Unity of three-fold light.â€
11th Century-Hermanus Contractus:
“Come, Holy Ghost, in Love!â€
Peter Damiani:
“There not waxing moon, nor waning,
Sun nor stars in courses bright;
For the Lamb, to that glad city
Shines an everlasting light.â€
12th Century-Unknown Author:
“The strife is o’er, the battle done;
He closed the yawning gates of hell;
The bars from Heaven’s high portals fell;
Let hymns of praise His triumps tell! Hallelujah!â€
Adam of St. Victor:
“Earth blooms afresh in glorious dyes;
In Christ’s arising all things rise;
A solemn joy o’er nature lies;
Alleluia;â€
Bernard of Cluny:
“Jerusalem, the Golden.â€
Unknown Author:
“Fairest Lord Jesus†(The Crusader’s Hymn).
13th Century-Thomas of Celano: (Dies irae, dies ilia!)
“May I find grace, O Lord, with Thee?
So the thief upon the tree;
Hope, too, Thou hast breathed in meâ€
14th Century-Unknown Author:
“Jesus is the Name we treasure.â€
Jacobus de Benedictus: (Stabat Mater)
Mechtilde of Helffde:
“If the world were mine and all its store
And were it of crystal gold;
Could I reign on its throne forevermore, From the ancient days of old,
An empress noble and fair as day,
O gladly might it be;-
That I might cast it all away:
Christ, only Christ for me!â€
“For Christ, my Lord, my spirit longs,
For Christ, my Saviour dear:
The joy and sweetness of my songs
The whilst I wander here.â€
As the great truths of grace began to be recovered more fully, the “Song of the Lord†burst more and more fully forth; until the Reformers took down the Church’s harps from the willows of the “Babylonian Captivity†of over a thousand years.
Appendix 2
“Elders†are mentioned twelve times in The Revelation. That they are individuals and not a symbolic company, is evident, it seems to me, for several reasons:
1. The Revelation is an unsealed book. When symbols or signs are shown they are plainly said to be such: e.g., chapter 12:1-3.
2. If the twenty-four elders are representative or symbolic, then the four living creatures must be also; but we all believe that four means four when applied to the living creatures; just as to the cherubim in Ezekiel 1:1-28.
3. The language used concerning the elders compels our belief that they are individuals. “One of the elders saith unto me†(chapter 5:5). “One of the elders answered†(7:13). “The twenty-four elders sit before God upon their thrones†(11:16).
4. Any one who takes the first mention of these elders (4:4) as anything other than twenty-four individuals, must have thorough proof for it, and that scriptural and not conjectural. “I saw four and twenty elders sitting†is a very definite statement indeed! We have found no Bible proof they are other than twenty-four individuals.
5. We know from 1 Chronicles 24:7-19 that the orders of the priests of Aaron’s house were divided into twenty-four courses. In the following chapter, moreover, those who “prophesied†with harps, psalteries and symbols according to their service by the hands of the king were also twenty-four (1 Chronicles 25:9-30). Furthermore, the military forces under King David were marshalled “of every course twenty and four thousand.†These changed month by month-twenty-four thousand monthly (1 Chronicles 27:1-15). Even before this (1 Chronicles 23:4) we find twenty-four thousand of the Levites who were “to oversee the work of the house of Jehovah†(although in this case the twenty-four thousand were chosen out of thirty-eight thousand-verse 3).
Darby says, “The number 24 represents twice 12. One might perhaps see here the twelve patriarchs and the twelve apostles-the saints in the two dispensations.†(Coll. Writ. Proph. Vol. 11, page 22.) This is better than to make them “represent†the Church; but it leaves them symbolic rather than actual elders.
We can only assume, not prove, that “the elders†are of our race at all. The cherubim are not; nor the seraphim nor the “chief princes†(Daniel 10:13). Because the term “elders†is so often mentioned (over 200 times) in Scripture, both in connection with Israel and the Church, many are willing to assume that the elders are human beings. But the elders do not testify of their own salvation at all: although they celebrate that of others, as in 5:8, 9 (R. V.).
Inasmuch as God had “elders†over His people Israel, and “elders†were also to be appointed in each Church, (Titus 1:5); and inasmuch as twenty-four seems God’s governmental order, we do not see why it may not be that there are “elders†over God’s creation; that they were created so; and they are twenty-four in number; and that just as the four zoa express in heading up, the four genera of God’s creation,-beast, cattle, man and eagle (Revelation 4:7; Genesis 1:20; Genesis 1:24; Genesis 1:26), so these “elders†were created and associated by God with His government. When Christ, with His Bride, the Church, comes to reign in power, in Revelation 19:1-21, we hear no more of these twenty-four elders: for God then subjects all to the Man: Psalms 8:1-9 is fulfilled. The elders, as all other heavenly beings, have their place, but under Christ and the Church.
Appendix 3
Idolatry: Especially the Worship of a Man by His Fellows.
1. Definition: Idolatry is man’s placing a visible object of worship before his eyes to protect him from God, thus silencing his conscience that he may indulge his lusts. God’s “invisible things are clearly seen†by all His responsible creatures. In idolatry, man deliberately “changes the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man,†and of lower creatures-even to “creeping things†(Romans 1:23). Idolatry is man’s deliberate, determined putting away from the thoughts of the concept of the holy God, and choosing and “changing†therefore a concept that will not judge his sin, and the setting up an “image†of that concept, a “likeness,†as an outward object with which the bodily senses may be occupied. This effectually excludes God.
2. History: Idolatry was unknown before the flood. The cherubim were placed at the gate of Eden, with “the flame of a sword.†Thus was man kept from the tree of life, that he might not live forever in his sinful state; and thus, perhaps, was he restrained from that hideous insult to God which idolatry ever is, just as in Israel’s case, “Israel served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and had known all the work … that he had wrought for Israel†(Joshua 24:31). Not until after the apostasy that preceded the flood (and which the flood judged) do we find record of man’s being permitted to throw off all knowledge by means of idolatry. Probably the earliest idolatry spoken of in Scripture is in the same chapter (Joshua 24:2; Joshua 24:14).
From “beyond the river†(Euphrates)-that is, from Mesopotamia, more particularly from Babel (later Babylon), and still more definitely from the daring acts of Nimrod, the “mighty destroyer†whose wife, Semiramis, (one of the most able and wicked women of the human race) was, upon her death deified as “queen of heaven,†do we trace the beginnings of idolatry, which eventuates in Satan-worship by means of “the image of the Beast,†seen in Revelation 13:1-18. From Babylon, idolatry extended to every land, for Babylon became “a land of graven images … mad over idols.†“Babylon hath been a golden cup in Jehovah’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad†(Jeremiah 50:38; Jeremiah 51:7). Idolatry spread thence to every nation, and God was blotted out from man’s knowledge. Read Isaiah 44:12-20. God’s sad and awful irony concerning the idolator!
And see the obscene stories and idols of every “mythology,†to show that it has always been as in Exodus 32:1-35 and Numbers 25:1-18.
3. Why man gladly makes a god of a fellow-man (as in Revelation 13:1-18):
a. He can see, a man, and “the invisible things of God†(of whom he is afraid) are thus escaped. Especially is this escape from God easy if the man worshipped be possessed of overwhelming power, dazzling greatness, or mysterious wisdom.
b. Man has to do with the infinite-he must: “God hath put eternity in man’s heart†; “his everlasting power and divinity†are clearly seen. Man wishes himself God. He hearkened to Satan’s “ye shall be as gods, knowing,†in Eden. Men therefore, in their weakness, are avidly ready to accept the claims of some other man in power and position, and with daring enough to assert himself a god. It is what every natural heart would like to be!
c. To worship man, thus gratifies and satisfies man’s pride. Men unknowingly worship their imagined selves when they worship a fellow-man.
d. Conscience is thus escaped, for the blaspheming self-deifier relieves his mind and heart as to God; not, of course, in the way of priesthood (for God is hated and banished, and the desire is to escape Him!) but in the way of presumption, for if our man-god defies God and is suffered, other men also can cast fear away-not independently, but leaning on their idol!
Thus is attained the first great end of idolatry-release from “the glory of the invisible God†: that glory being now exchanged for the “likeness†of the god man has chosen. This “likeness†is held in the idolater’s mind; he forms his “images†after that “likeness.†[This is the claim of all idolaters, that they “do not worship the idol, but the concept behind the idol.†Paul tells us they “sacrifice to demons, and not to God†(1 Corinthians 10:1-33). And the awful hideousness of the idols they make reveals the true character of the demons they worship!
It should be remembered, however, that even the deepest idolaters, who have “refused to have God in their knowledge,†yet “know the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death†(See Romans 1:28-32). The state of the heathen is wilful and guilty. Do not lose sight of this for one moment! The terrible calamities, for example, upon China, and the horrible degredation of India-what is it but the “indignation†of Jehovah, the true God, the living God, an everlasting King, pouring out upon idolaters His wrath (See, carefully, Jeremiah 10:1-10). It is like a flash of divine jealousy-it is that. See the eleventh verse of this chapter, the one Aramaic (or earth-language) in a whole Hebrew book: “Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.†]
e. Those who thus deify man are set free to practice all “human†lusts. The “wheel of nature†may revolve without restraint. And this is the second great end of idolatry. The awful course of Romans 1:21-31 is repeated in all idolatry. The moment Israel could look on a calf, and say, “These be thy gods, O Israel,†they were set free to “rise up and play†-which means obscenities that cannot be written! God being thus blotted from the mind by “the likeness of an image,†lusts were let loose. The unholiest doings of the human race this moment are connected with religion without God.
4. It should be noted, solemnly, that God “gives up†idolaters to their idols. “They that make them shall be like unto them.†See Psalms 115:1-18 -a great lesson! The “covetous man, who is an idolater,†also: the “likeness†he holds in his mind is treasure; the “image,†gold coin, stocks, bonds. He becomes like a coin-metallic, hard, cruel, harsh. The “likeness†held in the Romish mind is the (imagined) “queen of heaven†; the “image,†pictures and statues of “the Virgin†; these Romanists also become like unto their Babylonian “goddess.†To say the very least, their inner hearts are feminized, and lose the sense of the all-holy God; to say the most, they become so vile that they are the scandal of history. But ah, what will Revelation 13:1-18 bring forth, when men take Satan’s Christ so deep into their hearts that “they worship the dragon†because he gives his authority unto their darling, the Man of Sin!
5. The story of the Gentile powers shows:
A. That authority in the hands of unregenerate man leads constantly to the assumption of divine prerogatives. For neither the conscience’s fear of God, nor regard for the welfare of man, can stem the flood of nature’s pride let loose by irresponsible power, when vested in man.
B. That self-deification is able to destroy all good qualities. See Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:1-30, or Darius in chapter 6 as examples of that constant exaltation of self to divine honors by Gentile kings, with which every reader of history is familiar; notably, in the Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar on. What streams of martyr-blood have flowed from refusal to offer incense to the Emperor! (Read “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs†-a book every Christian parent should early read to his children.)
C. That the spirit of self-deification can only eventuate, as in Revelation 13:1-18, in the open Antichrist of the last days. And you must be prepared, by Scripture study, for this, for it is already stealing on the world!
If you doubt this, see Lenin in Russia,-already held a god! Or Mussolini’s daring and growing claims in Italy, and Hitler’s in Germany. Or, sad to admit, the rush to grasp power, exalt self, and compel subjection at any cost of abandoned promises, and political, moral and domestic safeguards-when the opportunity is given, in the United States of America!
Appendix 4:
Bullingerism
This teaching has been so fully answered, both in England and America, and its deadly dangers so fully worked out, that a discussion of it is practically unnecessary here. See, for example, the brief, but able and clear tract by Mr. W. Hoste of England: Bullingerism (Light and Liberty Publishing Company, Fort Dodge, Iowa). He also combatted Dr. Bullinger in England when he was yet alive. Also the various comments made by the Editor D. M. Panton in the magazine The Dawn (C. J. Thynne & Company, London); and those by Dr. James M. Gray in The Moody Monthly (Chicago). The recent righteously firm and unanswerable booklet Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth (Loizeaux Bros., New York) by Dr. H. A. Ironside, is not being answered by Bullinger votaries,-except by petitio principii,-begging the question that their rejection of water baptism is correct, the final teaching of Paul; and that those who disagree with them are ignorant or cowards. They do not answer the arguments made against them; instead they accuse their objectors.
Consider, regarding Bullingerism:
1. It subjects Scripture to rigid rules of outline and interpretation invented by the human mind. It does lean upon “its own understanding,†rather than upon the Holy Spirit.
2. It assumes, with unbelievable pride, that it knows “truth,†of which the whole Church has been ignorant since Paul. In other times, when men really recovered truth, as at the Reformation, or in Wesley’s or in Darby’s day, a mighty work of the Holy Spirit accompanied the Word, which resulted in the conversion of thousands, and the real edification in love of God’s Saints. Bullingerism causes divisions; ministers “questionings†and defeats unity. I have watched it for thirty-six years deceive, puff up, release from prayer and burden for souls, make men once zealous to reach the lost compass sea and land to make one proselyte to “no water-baptism,†“only prison epistles,†“Gospels not for us,†etc., etc.