rests on faith in a continuous providence of God ruling over the whole world, and with peculiar
efficacy over Israel and the congregation of Christ, according to the moral laws revealed through
Moses and Christ especially the laws of retribution. According to the secular view, all changes in
human affairs proceed partly from man’s power and prudence, partly from accident and the hidden
stubbornness of fate; but according to the prophetic view, everything happens through the agency
of God and in harmony with his counsels of eternal and unchangeable justice, and man is the maker
of his own fortunes by obeying or resisting the will of God."^1248
The prophecy of the Bible meets the natural desire to know the future, and this desire is
most intense in great critical periods that are pregnant with fears and hopes. But it widely differs
from the oracles of the heathen, and the conjectures of farseeing men. It rests on revelation, not on
human sagacity and guesses; it gives certainty, not mere probability; it is general, not specific; it
does not gratify curiosity, but is intended to edify and improve. The prophets are not merely revealers
of secrets, but also preachers of repentance, revivalists, comforters, rebuking sin, strengthening
faith, encouraging hope.
The Apocalypse is in the New Testament what the Book of Daniel is in the Old, and differs
from it as the New Testament differs from the Old. Both are prophetic utterances of the will of God
concerning the future of his kingdom on earth. Both are books of the church militant, and engage
heaven and earth, divine, human, and satanic powers, in a conflict for life and death. They march
on as "a terrible army with banners." They reverberate with thunderings and reflect the lightning
flashes from the throne. But while Daniel looks to the first advent of the Messiah as the heir of the
preceding world-monarchies, John looks to the second advent of Christ and the new heavens and
the new earth. He gathers up all the former prophecies and sends them enriched to the future. He
assures us of the final fulfilment of the prophecy of the serpent-bruiser, which was given to our
first parents immediately after the fall as a guiding star of hope in the dark night of sin. He blends
the glories of creation and redemption in the finale of the new Jerusalem from heaven.
The Apocalypse, as to its style of composition, is written in prose, like Daniel, but belongs
to prophetic poetry, which is peculiar to the Bible and takes there the place of the epic poetry of
the Greeks; God himself being the hero, as it were, who rules over the destinies of man. It is an
inspired work of art, and requires for its understanding a poetic imagination, which is seldom found
among commentators and critics; but the imagination must be under the restraint of sober judgment,
or it is apt to run into fantastic comments which themselves need a commentary. The apocalyptic
vision is the last and most complete form of the prophetic poetry of the Bible. The strong resemblance
between the Revelation and Daniel, Ezekiel and Zechariah is admitted, and without them it cannot
be understood.
But we may compare it also, as to its poetic form and arrangement, with the book of Job.
Both present a conflict on earth, controlled by invisible powers in heaven. In Job it is the struggle
of an individual servant of God with Satan, the arch-slanderer and persecutor of man, who, with
the permission of God, uses temporal losses, bodily sufferings, mental anguish, harassing doubt,
domestic affliction, false and unfeeling friends to secure his ruin. In the Apocalypse it is the conflict
of Christ and his church with the anti-Christian world. In both the scene begins in heaven; in both
the war ends in victory but in Job long life and temporal prosperity of the individual sufferer is the
price, in the Apocalypse redeemed humanity in the new heavens and the new earth. Both are(^1248) Zur Einleit. in die Offenb. Joh., p. 1. The translation is condensed.
A.D. 1-100.