FRONT COVER
THE OVERCOMERS
SERMONS ON REVELATION
Milo Hadwin
Cover by Glenna Carlton
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents ...... / IPreface ...... / ii
Introduction ...... / iii
Synopsis of Revelation ...... / xiii
1. / The Super Drama of Revelation ...... / 1
2. / The Overcomers ...... / 11
3. / The Christian Endurance race ...... / 20
4. / From the footstool to the Throne...... / 29
5. / “Weep Not; Behold the Lamb”...... / 36
6. / The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ..... / 44
7. / The 144,000 ...... / 54
8. / The Power of Prayer ...... / 65
9. / God’s Warnings to Repent ...... / 75
10. / Delay No Longer ...... / 84
11. / The Two Witnesses ...... / 94
12. / The Dragon and the Woman ...... / 109
13. / The Mark of the Beast ...... / 123
14. / The Final Harvest ...... / 135
15. / The Redeemed and the Wrath ...... / 146
16. / The Seven Bowls of Wrath ...... / 154
17. / Babylon, the Great Harlot ...... / 164
18, / The Fall of Babylon ...... / 175
19. / The Banquet and the Battle ...... / 185
20. / The Meaning of the Thousand Years ...... / 195
21. / The New Jerusalem ...... / 207
22. / The Climax of the Bible ...... / 218
i
PREFACE
This book is a collection of twenty-two sermons on the book of Revelation by Milo Hadwin, preached in Wheeling, West Virginia, in the United States, from January through June of 1960. There is one sermon on each chapter of the book. The sermons were taped, transcribed, and, with a minimum of editing, are presented here as they were preached.
The book of Revelation provides and exciting and encouraging message for the people of God. It is hoped these sermons will convey that sense of excitement and provide a great encouragement for all who read them. The Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version.
Milo Hadwin
Milo Hadwin was one of the first missionaries from our brotherhood to the Caribbean Island of Jamaica, in the 1960’s. I met him not long after he had returned to the United States. It was my privilege to spend some time with him in some meetings in Wheeling, West Virginia, in the early 1970’s.
In my close association with him, I have come to highly respect him as a dedicated Christian gentleman, a splendid preacher of the gospel and a serious student of the word of God.
The book of Revelation, from which Brother Hadwin preached these sermons, has a central theme. To the beleaguered Christians near the end of the first century, John wrote the hopeful message of Chris. “... Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). He did not promise that they would be exempt from suffering and hardships. He did give them assurance that in their faithful struggle against all oppositions, that one day they would be victorious and He would give them a crown of life. That is the story of this book, and it is as applicable to Christians of this century as it was to those in earlier times. You will enjoy and be profited by these lessons shared with us by this capable preacher of the word.
Guy V. Caskey
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INTRODUCTION TO REVELATION
Author—God
Writer—John, the Apostle
Date—c. A.D. 95
Destination—The original recipients were the seven churches in Asia Minor *Revelation 1:4). It was written for God’s servants (1:1) and was designed to bless everyone who will read, hear, and keep the things written in it (1:3; 22:7). It will bring a curse to anyone who adds to or takes away from the words written in it (22:18-19).
Even the parts addressed specifically to a church in one place (2:1) were intended for everyone in all of the churches of Christ in every place (2:7). It is a revelation to God’s servants (1:1) and there is no guarantee it will reveal anything to anyone else nor is there any assurance it will bless anyone except those who will keep its teaching (1:3).
Purpose—to reveal (Revelation 1:1) in such a way as to bless all of God’s servants who read it (1:3). It is the only book in the Bible that pronounces a blessing on those who read, hear, and obey its words.
It is not written just for historians, theologians, scholars, and intellectuals. Yet, the difficulty of the book is frequently stressed to the discouragement of the would-be reader.
For example, a recent commentator wrote: “Because of its symbolism, its saturation with Old Testament passages and themes, the various schemes of interpretation that have developed concerning this book through the ages, and the profundity and vastness of the subjects that are here unveiled, I believe that the Apocalypse, above every book of the Bible, will yield its meaning only to those who give it prolonged and careful study” (Wilbur Smith, They Wycliffeœ Bible Commentary, p. 1500).
Surely, the more one studies the more one is apt to learn, but even a beginner is bound to learn something and may even see
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something the scholar has missed. A pertinent question here is “How much did God intend to reveal in His Revelation?” “Are we expecting to have more meaning than God intended for in it?”
To illustrate, the same writer quoted these words regarding Revelation from a man he said is generally acknowledged to have been the most gifted Biblical expositor in the first quarter of our century, “There is no book in the Bible which I have read so often, no book to which I have tried to give more patient and persistent attention. ... There is no book in the Bible which I turn more eagerly in hours of depression than to this, with all its mystery, all the details of which I do understand” (G. Campbell Morgan, Westminster Bible Record, Vol. 3 (1912), 105, 109).
Could it be this scholar was looking for meanings in the details which the details were never intended to convey? Might it not have been sufficient that through these details God was able to convey a message sufficiently powerful to overcome his depression? As another writer expressed it: “Whenever there is a world crisis, whenever the State exalts itself and demands an allegiance which Christians know they cannot pay without abandoning their very souls, whenever the church is threatened by destruction, and faith is dim and hearts are cold, the Revelation will admonish, and exhort, uplift, and encourage all who heed its message” (Martin Kiddle in Moffatt Commentary, p. xlix). How can we know what Revelation means? How do we interpret the Bible? How can we interpret any literature?
1. Allow it to explain itself.
2. Interpret the part in light of the whole. (Recognize unity of the Bible. Part must harmonize with the whole.)
3. Consider historical background, purpose (do not make it say more than it intends to say) and style of writing (prose and poetry are interpreted differently).
4. Interpret the complex by the simple, the confusing by the clear, the ambiguous by the unambiguous. Do not change the clear meaning of a simple passage to fit one possible meaning of a difficult passage.
What more should we consider in interpreting Revelation specifically?
IV
Approach It With Humility
One of the most respected Bible scholars in the world today said very simply in the preface to his commentary on Revelation: “Some of the problems of this book are enormously difficult and I certainly have not the capacity to solve them” (Leon Morris, The Revelation of St. John, p. 13). That does not mean that we can understand nothing nor be certain about anything. It is to approach Revelation with the kind of attitude Peter had toward some of Paul’s writings (II Peter 3:15-18).
Recognize That It Is Highly Symbolic
This does not mean that we enter a world of unreality. As J.B. Phillips, who produced a popular translation of the New Testament, said, “He is carried not into some never never land of fancy, but into the Ever-ever land of God’s eternal Values and Judgments” (J.B. Phillips, The Book of Revelation, 1960, p. 9 as quoted by Morris, op. cit., p. 15).
Or, as C.S. Lewis said in his book, Mere Christianity, “There is no need to be worried about facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of “Heaven” ridiculous by saying they do not want ‘to spend eternity playing harps.’ The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them.
“All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressi-ble. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it. People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs” (p. 121).
That, in Revelation, we are dealing with some symbolic language can be seen from a few sample passages (3:18; 6:13; 8:10; 12:3-4). The rich imagery of Revelation introduces us to
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a whole menagerie of animals: horses, lions, leopards, bears, lambs, calves, locusts, scorpions, eagles, vultures, fish, and frogs. Revelation comes to us in living color with white symbolizing purity, black—distress, red—death (blood), purple—royalty and luxurious ease, and pale yellow—expiring life and the kingdom of the dead. Numbers are important symbols in Revelation. The number seven leads the way with 54 occurrences in Revelation. It symbolizes completeness, fullness, or perfection. There and a half is a broken number that appears in various forms, 42 months, 1260 days, “a time and times, and half a time,” symbolizing distress or tribulation.
Ten also is a symbol of completeness or perfection (ten com-mandments, the Holy of Holies was a cube, each side being of ten cubits—symbolic of heaven, according to Hebrews 9:3 and 24). Twelve is symbolic of God’s people, the church or the kingdom. So we have twelve tribes, twelve apostles, twice twelve being the number of elders representing the redeemed church (Revelation 4:4), the new Jerusalem has twelve gates and the walls of the city have twelve foundations—all of this associated with God’s people. Multiples of these numbers are common as the cube of 10 which is 10 x 10 x 10 is 1000.
Certainly one could turn Revelation into a bizarre mathematical nightmare with numerological games, but it is well to be aware of the possible symbolism that is often suggested and sometimes demanded by the context. We must not force into a symbol a meaning it does not naturally bear, or Revelation will become merely a playground for our own wild fantasies.
Recognize the Biblical Context
Revelation was not a work produced in some sublime isolation, but it breathes the atmosphere of the whole Bible of which it is the climax. It has been concluded by the research of two Bible scholars, Wescott and Hort, that of the 404 verses in Revela-tion, 265 contain lines embracing approximately 550 references to Old Testament passages. A thorough knowledge of the Old and New Testaments will surely enrich one’s study and under-standing of Revelation. Similarities to the language and symbolism of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 and other prophecies and portions of scripture are found in abundance.
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While these comparisons can be helpful they can also cause one to seriously distort the message and meaning of Revelation if the rest of the Bible is used as a kind of dictionary for assigning meaning to symbols. This assumes that Revelation is a kind of cryptogram or code message to be deciphered by treasure hunting through the entire Bible for hints and meanings. It is natural that Revelation would express itself in the familiar phrases of the rest of scripture since it is the summing up of God’s purpose in the history of His people.
However, it would be a mistake to assume that a symbol used in one part of scripture will have the same meaning as the same symbol used in another place (consider the serpents in Eden and the wilderness; also, the cross, once a symbol of shame, became the symbol of salvation. This mistake cn be seen in some attempts to apply the symbolism of Revelation to the glorified kingdom in its perfected state, which is yet to come.
Not A Book To Titillate Or Gratify
We need to recognize that it is not a book written to titillate or to gratify the curiosity of men who are anxious to tear aside the veil from the future (see Matthew 24:35, 42, 44). Revelation was never intended to be a celestial timetable of what is to come. It becomes tiring to listen to the frantic ravings of those who see in Bible prophecies forecasts of imminent disasters.
The two most prominent religious groups noted for such activity proved themselves false prophets once again in 1975 for those who do not already know it. One group’s magazine of October 9, 1966, specifically declared that the seventh millennium begin in Autumn, 1975. It read: “All the many, many parts of the great sing of the ’last days’ are here, together with verifying Bible chronology ...? (Awake).