The Revelation an Acted Prophecy - Western Europe and Asia the Stage

This is the continuation of the series, Antichrist And His Ten Kingdoms – By Albert Close and the previous post in the series, Who are the Kings of the East Mentioned in Revelation 16:12?

Furthermore, the Revelation is not merely a written symbolic prophecy, but also an acted prophecy, acted like a drama on the stage, with supernatural beings, as actors and the area of the old Roman Empire as the stage.

In Chapters 1 and 4, St. John is distinctly informed that the scenes about to pass before him in vision prefigure events to be fulfilled in real history during the coming centuries, viz.:—the command to St. John.

Revelation 1:19: Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter (i.e. after St. John’s day, A.D. 96).

St. John then records the great prophetic drama as he saw it enacted before him, just as we today witness historical scenes which have transpired, passing before us like a panorama on the cinema screen. He constantly uses the words “I heard” and “I saw,” just as we do, when we see a procession at Military or Naval Manoeuvres and describe them to our friends. The first Animated Pictures were seen in Patmos by St. John in A.D. 96!—in a Divine Vision.

All the figures were in action at different stages as hearers or speakers, and John described the scene.

In this Divine book and in Daniel, the sun, moon, stars, earth, fire, falling stars, winds, storms, lightning, hail, rain, waters, sea, rivers, seas and rivers of blood, floods, dry land, overflowing of waters, fountains, islands, trees, mountains, wilderness, beasts, as the lion, bear, leopard, goat, with their heads, horns, feet, wings, teeth, etc., are all symbolic; they are symbols of things of a different nature, though things analogous to these, or in some sense resembling them. These all refer to the history in the area of the Four Beasts of Daniel 7, not to the whole world, according to the Reformers’ school of interpretation. The area of the Four Beasts of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13-18 determines the area in the world when drawn on a map. These reach to the Second Advent. (The Second coming of Christ!)

On this landscape as a stage, a miniature of the great world stage on which this great prophetic drama was afterwards fulfilled by centuries of real history, St. John saw symbolic beings performing symbolic actions. The performers included Heavenly, Earthly, and Satanic Beings, all of whom are symbolic and representative.

Christ is represented as a Lamb, and Satan sometimes as a Serpent, sometimes as a Dragon inspiring the Beast. The true Church of Christ, comprised of all who had been born of the Spirit, in all churches and all religions, including those in the Roman Church as a Bride arrayed in spotless white. (Rev. 18:4) Her great arch-enemy the apostate Church of Rome as a foul, bloodstained Harlot, having her seat of power at the Seven-Hilled city of Rome, clad in purple and scarlet and decked with jewels. The kings of the Eastern and Western Roman Empire or Roman “earth” and their armies, are also seen playing their parts at different stages. In short, in so far as it was to affect the Church of Christ, St. John saw in symbolic vision the rehearsal of the great world drama to be afterwards played in real history, by nations, churches* and religious systems, from St. John’s day to the consummation of all things. This of course does not imply Divine fore-ordination, but it does emphatically imply Divine foreknowledge, as in the case of the Crucifixion of Christ, which was clearly foretold hundreds of years in advance.

* The same principle of Divine revelation appears to have been employed by the Almighty when revealing the story of the Creation to the original Seer, as recorded in the first chapters of Genesis. In Genesis, the past history of the earth and the human race was revealed in symbolic language, whilst in Daniel and The Revelation, the future was unfolded to Daniel and St. John in like symbolic actions and language.

Who are the Kings of the Whole World?

In Aug., 1943, Bartholomew’s Atlas gave a total of 183 countries; 134 nations, large and small, as now officially in the Second World War. Divided in Aug. 1943 by the complexities of the situation into four categories. The principal countries are:—

The United States of America ranged against Germany, Italy, Japan, Manchukuo (the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria from 1932 to 1945).
Britain, Canada, Union of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Free French and China against Germany, Italy, Japan, Manchukuo, Finland, Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria.
Russia, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Ethiopia, Persia, against Germany, Italy, Finland, Romania, Croatia, and Hungary.
Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Haita, El Salvador, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Brazil, Uruguay, Panama, Bolivia, Chile, against Japan, Germany, and Manchukuo.

The most important neutrals include: Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Venezuela. They also may be soon drawn in. If this comes to pass that will be another important sign indicated by Jesus Christ of the Approaching End of the Age.

There were 134 countries, large and small, at War in 1942, and 42 neutral according to the Times. They also may be drawn in before the end. In the 1914-18 Great War there were only 17 countries represented at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

The Divine Interpretation of Prophecy.

Here is the interpretation given to St. John in Patmos.

Revelation 16:14: For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walked naked, and they see his shame.

16 And they gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. (This valley in Palestine is only 25-miles in length. It is symbolic).

17 And the Seventh Angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne saying, It is done.

Christ and Present Day Signs in the World.

18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell; and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

21 And great hail, every stone about the weight of a talent, cometh down out of heaven upon men: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof is exceeding great.

(Continued in The Purple and Scarlet Robes of the Bishops of the Church of Rome. )