THEORIES ON THE
REVELATION
There
are, in the main, three theories concerning the time in history, to which the
various visions and revelations in the book refer.
The Preterist Interpretation. According to this,
most of the contents of the book refer to events in the early days of the
Apostolic Church. Grotius, Wetstein, Eichhorn, are among the advocates of this
view.
The Historical Interpretation. Others, particularly
Protestants, regard the book as a prophetic history of the Church and the
world, from the days of the Apostles to the end of time. Among the advocates of
this view are, Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, Vitringa, Bishop John Newton, and Dr.
Alexander Keith.
The Futurist Interpretation. According to this
theory, the greater part of the prophetic contents of the book, if not all of
it, will be fulfilled during the last days, before the second advent of our
Lord. Among the exponents of this view are Maitland and Burgh.
The explanation of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
By this we mean the definition in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 77,
revealed to the Prophet in 1832.
According to these inspired Key-Words, the sealed scroll contained
the "revealed will, mysteries and works of God," during seven
thousand years of the temporal existence of the Earth. The
first seal contained the history and revelations of the first one thousand
years, the second of the second thousand, and so on until the seventh. During
these ages a conflict is raging between the forces of good and of evil. The
people of God are suffering oppression again and again, but the outcome of each
conflict is a triumphant victory of truth over falsehood, righteousness over
sin. Persecuting Rome falls; Jerusalem, where also their Lord was
crucified." (Revelation 11:9) is destroyed by an earthquake (v. 13);
antichristian Babylon is thrown down as a millstone cast into
the sea (Ibid., 18:21). Finally, every enemy of the Son of God will be
subjected, willingly or unwillingly, to His sovereign rule.
Applying this interpretation, the prophecies in the Book of
Revelation, as the events of history, repeat themselves. The denunciations
pronounced against Babylon may apply to any other city, to Jerusalem, to pagan
Rome, to a persecuting city that has flourished in any age, as well as to the
ancient center of civilization on the banks of the River Euphrates. The angel
with the little book of Revelation 10, may represent the Prophet Joseph
Smith in our age, as well as the Apostle John in his time. The woman with the
infant, Chapter 12, may symbolize the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, and not only the first Apostolic Church. For the Latter-day Saints,
too, found a refuge in the wilderness under the protecting shelter of the
"two wings of a great Eagle" (Ibid., 12:14).
The Doctrine and Covenants has a double interpretation of
prophecies. In Section 88, the sounding of seven trumpets is the sign of
the Second Advent of our Lord and the first resurrection and judgment (vv.
92-106). Then there is an interval of the Millennium, at the end of which seven
angels again sound their trumpets, before the very last battle between the
Hosts of Heaven under Michael, the Archangel, and the armies of hell, commanded
by the adversary (vv. 108-116), "when they shall no more see death."
Here it is evident that the events symbolized by the sounding of the seven
trumpets in Revelation 8:7-21 and 11:15-19 are repeated first at the
time of the Second Advent and then at the time of the final victory of our Lord
over all enemies, including sin and death.
The Author. It is generally understood and agreed upon among
Bible students that St. John the Divine, the author of the
Revelation, was the Apostle John, whom Jesus loved (John 21:20).
This Apostle was, as far as can be ascertained from the records, a son of
Zebedee and Salome, a sister of the mother of Jesus (Matthew 27:56 and Mark
15:40), and therefore a cousin of our Lord. James, the brother of John, was
also a prominent Apostle.
The Title. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto Him, to show His servants things which must shortly come to pass." (Revelation
1:1) When the Apostles on one occasion asked the Master to tell them something
about the end of the world, (Matthew 24:3) He enumerated some of
the signs, but concerning the time He added, "Of that day and that hour
knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but
the Father" (Ibid., 24:36; Mark 13:32; Acts 1:6-8). Now
the Father had given His Son these revelations for the special purpose of
imparting to His people the knowledge needed for their comfort in times of
trial. Our Lord promised through the Prophet Moroni (Ether 4:16), that John
would commit the revelations to writing, and that they would be further
unfolded at the time of the end of the dispensation immediately preceding His
Second Advent.
One of John's first visions. The initial vision
of the Revelation is that of Seven Candlesticks, representing an equal number
of churches in Asia Minor. A supernatural Being is seen walking among them. He
is, John says, "like unto the Son of man." He is clothed in a garment
reaching the feet. He wears a golden girdle around his chest. His hair is white
as wool, or as snow, and his eyes are as a flame of fire. The description
reminds us of the appearance of the Ancient of Days in Daniel
7:9, who, the Prophet Joseph Smith says, is Michael, or Adam. The
Apostle was so strongly affected by this vision that he fell at his feet as
dead (Revelation 1:17).
It is sometimes assumed that this supernatural Being was our Lord
Jesus Christ. But the text does not say so. The glorious messenger represented
our Lord, "the First and the Last, He that liveth and was dead and Who
liveth for evermore; He Who hath the keys of the grave and death." He
spoke for Him, and the message he brought was from Him. But as for further
identity, John says he was like unto the Son of man. It is true,
this title was conferred upon the Second person in the Godhead, or was properly
assumed by Him (Daniel 7:13; Matthew 8:24; 9:6; 24:30 and
many more passages). For as our first ancestor, Adam, was the representative of
the entire human race, and as such is the MAN, so Jesus, the Savior of MAN,
became the Second Adam, and such is the representative of the entire race (I
Corinthians 15:45-47). He bore the likeness of Adam, the representative of MAN.
We are inclined to the view that the Supernatural Being who
appeared in the initial vision of this book was the Holy Spirit, and not the
Son of God, Who afterwards appears as a Lamb standing as though it had been
slain (Revelation 5:6). Our reason for this suggestion is a very obvious one,
that this messenger instructs John to end all the dictated letters to the
churches thus: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith
unto the churches. The natural inference is that, while the message comes
from the Son, the Messenger is the Spirit. If this interpretation is correct,
the Holy Spirit appeared in this vision as he made himself known to the young
Prophet Nephi, who says: I spake to him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he
was in the form of a man; yet, nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of
the Lord; and He spake unto me as a man speaketh with another (I Nephi 11:9-12;
compare 10:11).
Beginning of history. The student of the predictions and prophetic visions
concerning the seven millenniums, or seven thousand years, should be cautioned
against regarding these figures as proving that the Earth was created about
four thousand years before our era; that, in other words, the total age of our
orb now (1960) is only about 5960 years. There is, as far as we know, no
support of such a notion anywhere in the Sacred Literature of the world. On the
contrary, the Scriptures give us to understand that that time is but a brief
period of the life of our earthly habitation.
In the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 77:6-7, we read as
follows:
"What are we to understand by the book which John
saw, which was sealed on the back with seven seals?
"We are to understand that it contains the
revealed will, mysteries, and works of God; the hidden things of His economy
concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or
its temporal existence."
"What are we to understand by the seven seals
with which it was sealed?
"We are to understand that the first seal
contains the things of the first thousand years, and the second also of the
second thousand years, and so on until the seventh."
Temporal existence we understand to mean being, or
existence in time. We may express this thought somewhat differently, and say
that the prophecies do not concern themselves with geological ages, except as
far as they recognize God as the Creator and Ruler of all existence. They deal
with history and historical facts, or periods. We read again from the Doctrine
and Covenants, Section 77:12, concerning the seven trumpets:
"We are to understand that as God made the world in six days
and on the seventh day He finished His work, and sanctified it and also formed
man out of the dust of the earth; even so, in the beginning of the seventh
thousand years will the Lord God sanctify the earth, and complete the salvation
of man, and judge all things, and shall redeem all things except that which He
hath not put into His power, when He shall have sealed all things; and the
sounding of the trumpets of the seven angels, are the preparing, and finishing
of His work, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years;—the preparing of
the way before the time of His coming."
Thus the limits of the prophetic vision are clearly
defined. It is, as it were, only a week, from Sabbath to Sabbath, in the life
of the Earth.
Chronological tables compared. As is well known,
the genealogical records of Genesis begin with Adam, the first man, about 4000
B.C., as calculated by Bishop Usher. These are the Hebrew records. The tables
in the Samaritan version of the Bible, and the seventy translators differ
somewhat from the Hebrew figures, but we need not enter in that here. If we now
add the 1960 years of our era to the 4000 preceding years, we have a total 5960
years as the age of the human race. If, further, we understand that each 1000
years represent one prophetic day, we find ourselves now living very near the
close of the sixth day, there being only 40 common years before the seventh
millennium, that is to see the Second Advent of our Lord.
We are not intending this as prediction; much less as an inspired
prophecy; we are only trying to point out an unavoidable conclusion from the
extant records, provided they have come to us as they were originally written,
and provided also that our interpretation of them is correct.
Egyptian
records are interesting for the sake of comparison, since Moses had his first
education in Egypt. Manetho, an Egyptian historian (323-283 B.C.) allows, we
are told, 3555 Egyptian, or 3553 Julian years from Menes, the first ruler
in Egyptian annals, until the end of the 30th dynasty, 340 B.C. add the 1960 of
our era to the 3553 of Menes, we have a total of 5853 years as the age of
history. This is remarkably close to the Hebrew 5960 years from our first
ancestor, Adam. (George
Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols.
[Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1977], 6:102-5)
