I N D E X
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When we are told that the great day of the wrath of God was fulfilled by the invasion of Rome by the Goths and
Vandals (Barnes), or by the rout of the pagans before the military forces of Constantine (Elliot) or by the French
Revolution (Cunningham) we are amazed at such triviality and of one thing we can be assured, namely that sinners
need have no great fear of this day of divine judgment. That Israel figures right throughout this book is clear.
Israelitish imagery is used from the very beginning. Thus we have references to the Temple, the Tabernacle, the
Ark, the manna, the golden altar of incense, the rod of iron, Jezebel, Balaam, Egypt and its plagues and so on. The
tribes of Israel are named in chapter 7 and the symbolism in chapter 12 unmistakably identifies it with this nation.
The predominance of Israel is seen by the following:
(1) The seven assemblies are basically Hebrew Christian. All the imagery applied to them belongs to historical
Israel of the Old Testament. Those `that say they are Jews and are not' (2:9 and 3:9) has no meaning if these
are entirely Gentile churches. Any Gentile element must be along the lines of the `wild olive graft' (see Rom.
11) in which Gentile believers share the covenant blessings of Israel.
(2) The 144,000 are of the 12 tribes of Israel (chap. 7).
(3) The woman of chapter 12 represents true Israel.
(4) The harlot of chapter 17 represents false Israel with its world wide dominance behind the scenes.
(5) The Bride consists of the overcomers from the assemblies and the faithful from Abel onwards (see Heb.
11:8-10, 14-16; 12:22).
(6) The New Jerusalem, the `better country' (Heb. 11:16) which finally descends to the new earth.
The names of 12 tribes of Israel are on the 12 gates.
The 12 apostles are on the 12 foundations (cp. Heb. 11:10).
The spiritualizers seek to change Israel into the Body of Christ in order to identify the predictions of the
Revelation with past events in this age. Dean Alford states:
`I am ... quite unable ... to point out definitely any period in the history of the world's civil power which shall
satisfy the 42 months of chapter 13:5. As far as I have seen, every such attempt hitherto has been characterized
by signal failure' (Commentary on Revelation Sec. 5).
The historicist makes a serious mistake in identifying the age of grace with the future age of judgment. We live now
in a period where grace reigns and while as long as this is true, judgment and wrath are held back (Rom. 5:19-21).
God is not now imputing sin in any judicial sense (2 Cor. 5:18-21), but there is an end to this age of grace and when
this happens, the great Day of the Lord commences and this is one of wrath and judgment when He will `punish the
world for their evil ... in the day of His fierce anger' (Isa. 13:9-13).
The first coming of the Lord was for salvation, for He came not to judge the world but to save it (John 12:47).
His Second Coming, on the contrary, is for judgment upon a world that has turned its back upon the gospel of grace
and finally accepts the Antichrist instead of the Christ of God. Sometimes in the Old Testament, the two comings
are brought together as though there was no interval between them. It is as if one views a range of mountains afar
off and the peaks appear to be close to each other, yet when one comes near to them, or flies over them in an aircraft,
one sees large valleys in between separating them, which were quite invisible at a distance. This age is like these
invisible valleys. It was beyond the prophetic vision given to the Old Testament prophets.
Thus Isaiah links together `The acceptable year of the Lord' with `the day of vengeance of our God' (Isa. 61:1,2),
but when the Lord Jesus read this Scripture in the synagogue, He stopped at `the acceptable year of the Lord'. The
`Day of vengeance' figures in His Second Coming, not the first one. If this was not true He could not have said to
His audience, `this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears' (Luke 4:16-21) for, as we have just seen, He came not
to condemn but to save. But we search Isaiah 61 in vain for any interval of time between these two happenings.
We can now appreciate how the present `dispensation of the Mystery' (secret, Eph. 3:9 R.V.), cannot be found in
the Old Testament. Both the time and this particular truth were then `hid in God'.
Other examples of this can be seen in Isaiah 9:6,7 where the birth of Christ and the exercise of His government
are linked together, without any revelation of nearly two thousand years of rejection in between them. In Daniel