Notes on the book of Revelations/Chapter 12

by John Nelson Darby

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The nineteenth verse of chap. xi. should, I think, though a connecting one, more properly begin the twelfth chapter. Looking at the chapters as continuous, it is the direct manifest agency of heaven upon earth, the connection of the two. It is not now a seal, opened by one who alone could do it, but the temple opened; “and there was seen,” &c.

The first thing seen, was the secure and unchanging witness of God’s covenant mercy, on which all his thoughts and purposes were bent. After the sounding of the seventh trumpet, all the relationships of things, and their real principles and sources, came out. If we look at the eighteenth verse of chap. xi. as closing generally, as it does,—then the twelfth takes back the Church to see, abstractedly, the principles and sources of all the events, which, in fact, will be brought out in the last three years and a half manifestly.

These two points of view are in no way inconsistent; for the last crisis is a bringing to a head and manifestation, these very sources of action, in manifested agents and direct collision of action. On the contrary, none can understand the crisis that takes place, unless they enter into the sources, principles, and moving of (in some sense, we may say, interested) agents, which are here unveiled from the beginning; and, on the other hand, the workings of these agents and principles, and their results, are never clearly seen until brought thus out at the end in their very results, though faith may discern their principles long before. Thus the Lord says, in the first displays of his power, “I beheld Satan, like lightning, fall from heaven:” and His great apostle reveals to us, that the mystery of iniquity did already work, only there was a letter, till he should be taken out of the way; and then the wicked should be revealed, whom the Lord would destroy. The unveiling, then, of these hidden, but real agents, was just the unfolding of what would be brought into crisis: and the crisis is the actual manifestation of these agents in their true character, no longer under the cover of mysteries. Hence the Church knows them, as admitted into heaven; and explains their manifestations when they shew themselves on earth.

This forms no part; properly, of the seals, then; but comes in, under the Church’s proper knowledge, by the Holy Ghost, and His revelations of what passes in heaven; not in mere communion, as taking of the things of Christ; but in revelation, as shewing what is connected with the manifestation of His glory. It is all based (come what will) on the immutability of the ark of the covenant where the Church rested for her hopes. It was the ark of the covenant of God and the temple of God.

This being fixed, the ways and purposes of Providence were then discovered. There appeared a great^[1] sign in heaven. As the woman was for the man, so was the man by the woman; and here things were revealed, not in ultimate results (that is the knowledge of the Church, always, in communion, whether as to Christ’s glory as man, or God all in all), but as administered by the way, and, therefore, the man is by the woman here; so. in other types of Scripture. Hence, though we see her in the glory of God’s mind, at first, we soon see her in various circumstances and exigencies, to which she was, in His wisdom and righteousness, subjected, even to fleeing away upon earth. Here, however, she is seen in her title of glory in heaven. The purpose of God is in the Church; but Christ is its great subject; and, in fact, she may be subject to ten thousand vicissitudes here below, for the world is not regulated otherwise than secretly. God may glorify her, but the woman’s place is to be subject; she does not carry on the war, and cannot, in this character. I have already mentioned, elsewhere,^[2] that the activity of faith, or its failure, is, in typical scripture, spoken of as the man—the condition of the Church or people of God; for in this sense the Church is the name for a condition of the people of God. This last, being used in a general sense, is represented by the woman.

We have to look, here, at the people of God, as in his own mind or purpose, and therefore glorified in that; yet, as we have said, entering into the detail of consequences, it is in the ministration of it, for it is the man by the woman, not the woman for the man; both have their importance and their place. Hence the woman is seen clothed with supreme authority—the Divine or heavenly splendor of supreme authority, and all derivative light and rule under her feet; all lesser authority was her crown, and that in perfectness. Thus it is viewed abstractedly, but in purpose with all God attaches to it, and about which all God’s mediate purposes or plans roll—his own glory and Jesus ever the end. And thus shall it close, for it is true, that άρχή τής θεωρίας τέλος τής πράξεως.

For we are not speaking here of God’s returning into his own infinitude, which can hardly be called purpose:^[3]—Christ, then, the glory of the Son, was the purpose; but here, it being the ministration of it, the woman is presented and the man hidden. If we descend to detail, we shall find the most marked contrast. The lowest state of the lowest condition of God’s people—that under the law broken, and they ruled over by the last form of Gentile evil, as to its personality—that in which Christ was born; and so rightly. For by sin the glory was all reversed, all was reversed; the throne, which ought to be the instrument of God’s justice, the instrument of slaying His Son, at the instance and instigation, intercession (if you please) of His priests, the leaders of His own people! What a picture of things! If we go to the time when the Jews will actually say, “To us a child is born,” we shall see it is after the very last and manifested form of the last evil—the evil of the last days. The Church knows it now, for it has the mind of Christ; and we are renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created us. That which we find here, then, is the purpose of God concerning the condition of His people producing one who was to rule all nations; and, instead of His doing so, He is caught up to God and His throne, and the condition of his people is left exposed to trial, misery, and pursuit of the great enemy, who had been waiting and seeking to devour the man-child when born. It, however, entirely escapes from him. Such is the general picture, which throws much light on the whole of the detail. If we apply it to Christ in person, then its accomplishment, as to heavenly purpose, whatever he might suffer here, is sufficiently manifest; the condition of God’s people being suffering and trial thereon. If we apply it to the saints, who overcome here (as we read) as He did, and to whom it is given to rule as He has received of His Father, then we find that, though the object of the enemy was to devour them too, they are caught up out of his way, to Him who was above his power; and the trial and persecution falls on those left here—upon the woman: the details of this are entered into, in what follows in the chapter. After the child is caught up, the woman flees. In this there are no details. It is a description of the position of the parties, and that with all possible clearness, as with Divine power and precision. There is one of these of which, as yet, I have said but little—this other wonder (who was opposed to the woman, this purpose of God in His people)—the great red dragon. His object was to destroy the man-child to be brought forth by the woman, whose pains of labour he perceived, and hating all that belonged to it; for the purpose of God and its fruits were his destruction. He failed in this, and turned his anger against that which, in a certain sense, was left in his power.

That the dragon is the hostile power of the adversary there is no question. We have the authority of this book, I suppose no one will deny, (chap. xx.) for saying that.

If we look to the source of power, it is there; only without the description which gives it its formal character. It was here seen.in heaven, i.e. not in its providential forms and consequences by the will of man, but as the Lord viewed it in its will or power of evil; as a whole, identified in form with the beast (to which it gave its power, it is true), yet not the beast—and not identified with it in the specialties of its latter-day character, but the whole generic form of Satan’s power, in that which took, at a given period, that character. It had the seven heads and ten horns, but the heads were crowned, not the horns. It was Satan, acting in the form of power, in which he countervailed—not the earthly purpose amongst the Jews, or attacked Jerusalem—but the heavenly^[4] purposes and glory of God by Christ in his people. Hence, too, the death of Christ, which closed his Jewish and earthly career, is not noticed here, because the Jewish associations of Christ are not the question when things are seen in the heavens—the child was caught up to God and His throne.

The tail of the serpent, his moral influence—evil moral influence—the effects of his power, and the dominant religion of the state, put down a third of the rulers of God, and made them subordinate.

The effect on the woman was her retreat into solitude and sorrow, for so she is seen in actual effect.

Here are the parties: the seventh verse begins a new topic.

There was war in heaven. This was not the war of the Church, but of Divine power; not yet, however, in the manifested energy of the Son of Man, the mighty man, the man-child; but in the more secret agencies of his will, angelic ministrations. The Church’s war, carried on in the flesh, is carried on in suffering, and waged against the accuser, by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, he being always there; and yet they above him, as an overcome enemy in Christ, in their flesh wretched, and as to that, in its will under his power; but here it was, power to expel, in service to God,—the question settled whether the dragon and his angels should continue there—“and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven; and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him.” Then came the celebration; and, in the thirteenth verse, what followed on the earth: and the change in all this is very important. The Church’s estimate of it in heaven, too, is—“the accuser of our brethren;” the consequence of which was trial^[5] and persecution upon earth; they loved not their lives unto death, overcoming him by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony—a time then of saints’ suffering, and Satan having his place in heaven, in authority and power, and deceiving the whole world; from which this victory of Michael and his angels casts him down. I apply here the same principle of providential working and manifestation in crisis as throughout; and I mention it here only particularly, and its application, because, by modern interpreters, entirely rejected. It is not his influence in the Church that is here in question,^[6] but his power in the rule of the world, however that might act on the Church. The argument, then, that mischief might accrue to the Church by the ceasing of Satan’s open power in the world, because the Church thereby sunk in the world, is nothing to the purpose: for my own part, I admit it in the fullest manner possible, though I am sure all was wisely ordered. But as the setting up the supreme power in Nebuchadnezzar, and his speedy connection of it with enforced idolatry, was very important in the Divine Government in the world, (power coming from God—though Israel was, or might not be, in question in this last act), so the entire relinquishment of idolatry by the governing power (for whatever man does, God looks to the conduct of the governing power) was a fact of great importance in the history of God’s government of the world. It was setting aside Satan’s direct throne in the world; for the existence of power in the Gentiles is not Satan’s direct throne, it was transferred to them by God—it is its use and character in sinful man that makes it Satan’s. This may be merely by passions, or it may be by the direct worship of Satan and his angels, or by open blasphemy against God. The second of these is, the open heavenly rule of Satan, looked at in providence: and this went on in Gentile idolatry. He may recover it secretly by what is called the Church: but the thing itself never was restored. This appears to me a very plain and important distinction in the exercise of Satan’s power; which we cannot pass by without leaving a great blank in our knowledge of God’s mind—and consequently its train lost and the Church misled. Taking this event in this point of view, it would connect itself with the providential course of things which the Church understands in heaven, though not yet outwardly manifested; and the consequent period would be a period of years, the period being the period of her nourishing there, not the date of her flight for this providential purpose. These things are given generally in their characters, not dates, because it was a course of progressively-developed principles, although sometimes facts may have given particular dates. As regards that which takes place actually in the crisis, the facts are simple and plain.

There was war in heaven; Michael, the archangel, and his angels fought, and the dragon; and the dragon was cast out of heaven entirely and finally, out of that place of authority and power which he had held, as ruling the world—“the rulers of the darkness of this world.” As to whom Michael is, we have mention of this exalted name, in Jude, as contending with the devil; and in Daniel, as that great prince who stands up as the ruler of providential power, in favour of the Jewish people, who are the central object of Providence in the arrangement of nations. I do not see that it is revealed that it is Christ^[7] under a mystical name, but it is certainly the direct superior agent of God’s providential purposes, and thus the immediate instrument of favour to His people in that character. The notion of archangels is not sustained in Scripture^[8]—there are seven angels, who stand in the presence of God, spoken of. But Satan was cast out, finally out, of heaven; and the announcement that salvation, strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ was come;—the reason given,—that the accuser of the brethren was cast down. Satan, in his character of anti-priest, had been unceasing in his accusations against the brethren; though, in the course of God’s dealings with the saints, during this time of trial, he had suffered their being even put to death here below; yet they had overcome their enemy there really, as to all the questions which Satan could raise before God. The accusations were of no avail through the blood of the Lamb. Satan could not overthrow their conscience; and by the word of their testimony they maintained the truth and righteousness against him as the father of lies; so that while the great High Priest secured their cause above, Satan, as a liar and accuser, seeking to deceive, was baffled and overcome: as a murderer, was submitted to till Christ took the power, and he was turned out. The manner in which accusations and persecutions are connected, in principle, may be seen in the history of the book of Job. Thereon the dwellers in heaven—for this was the ground and place of the enmity and conflict (see Ephesians, chaps. i. ii, and vi.)—are called on to rejoice, for this conflict is ended. Christ, as the great High Priest, might have sustained them in the conflict with the accuser; but now the conflict^[9] was ended. This is clearly what concerned the Church, in this matter, as identified with Christ in His priestly exaltation. Woe then comes upon the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea; for the devil, not yet shut up, but cast from heaven, is come down in great wrath, knowing he has but a short time. Here the second paragraph of this chapter ends—the first at verse 8, where the parties are stated, as we have seen, in the original idea and purpose. Here the actings of heaven’s deliverance from his power, and the con- sequence of this to the Church, which properly sits in heavenly places; then, verse 18, what the devil did when cast down to earth, after he was cast out of heaven.

The dragon has now lost his place in heaven. He cannot rule the world, as thence, as the prince and god of it: but he comes as a woe and judgment from God, upon those whose end is to be destruction, and so has unlimited power over them; and he is in great wrath, because he has now but-a short time. His enmity against Him^[10] who has thus sentenced him, is exercised against that which has any connection with Him in the now sphere of his malice. He can no longer accuse the brethren: he persecutes the woman; and, at this period upon earth, the woman is the Jewish Church—the woman that brought forth the man, for that was true of the Jewish economy as to Christ, looked at in his title of power upon earth,—“To us a Son is born.” But here, to the woman is given force and speed from God; but only to flee into the wilderness, where she is nourished for the allotted period, which, speaking as to the closing crisis, is three years and a half; for during this period the opportunity of her return was not afforded by the cessation of the dragon’s power.

The dragon here takes the name of serpent as having the form of subtlety, deceit, and malice, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan. It is the enmity, we are to remark, of the dragon and serpent, not the woes on the earth which are described; that is reserved for more detailed account in what follows, at least as to the part material for the Church’s instruction in its passage towards it. And here I must remark the extreme importance to us of connecting the events and agents in the crisis, in principle, character, and progress, with what is passing and the agents we see around us, or it loses its main moral effect, and its whole use for the Church. The Church is not under this woe, I believe, at all, in the final crisis. It is on earth, to the Jewish people, this Son is born; we belong to the heavens, whence Satan is cast out: but, by the ripened fruit in that day, as more fully displayed in subsequent chapters, we learn the present nature and character of the tree that bears it, as God describes man by his fruits, in Rom. iii., though all men have not borne such: and thus I can judge my own heart, and know what man is; and if the last apostate be not revealed, he is but the head of a system of which God’s revelation of him as the full fruit makes me know the sap and character. Though the serpent could not overcome the woman in war (for God preserved her, not by the mighty man, but by flight, and there his direct power was stopped; for heavenly power was in aid for her), yet the resources he had he uses, and pours forth, animated by his energy, these waters as a flood. I should suppose, from the explanation given in this book of waters, looked at as on earth, these were armies of people directly under Satan’s moral influence, flowing from his mouth, the expression of his mind and will.

But the earth helped the woman, by whatever providence (for God teaches here the facts of Satan’s agency not the historical providences)—the scene of God’s providential and prophetic agency—and swallowed up and brought to nought this agency of Satan: it was frustrated; and he went to make war with the remnant of her seed, the godly Jews, who might remain within his reach, who obeyed God’s commandments, and had received the testimony of Jesus Christ;—for so (for I am now speaking of the final crisis) I believe the Jews, i.e. the remnant, will. But I do not say further than a prophetic testimony; for the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. The dragon (for he is not now spoken of in his subtle actings, but identified again in his character and acting in the sphere and character of power) was wroth with the woman whom he could not touch, and went to make war, to use violence towards the remnant of the seed.

In this chapter, then, we have a very clear account, not of the details of providential historical acting, but of Satan’s mind, and ways, and purposes, concerning the purpose of God, in its inceptive character; for, as accomplished, it is clear he cannot touch it. Although I-have little doubt in my mind in what events these plans of Satan will specially shew themselves, I have entered into them here very little, because God is here instructing the Church what the plans are, rather than how they are accomplished, save as presenting severally the agents: and if we are not content to be instructed as God instructs us, we had better not learn at all. I desire in Scripture not to explain but to receive, and, in communicating, to say what is there, not add thoughts. This may seem a slight distinction; but the effect of the difference will soon be seen in the formation of systems instead of actual profiting by divine instruction.

There are three distinct parts in the chapter: first, the agents; the woman in God’s purpose to be delivered of a man-child, the depository of earthly power, to rule the nations; the dragon ready to devour him, whose birth and character he partially knew (for Scripture told it), and whose speedy bringing forth was now apparent. The result is, the man-child, instead of acting in power at once, is hid, but in the place of Godhead and power—the woman flees; thus the direct agents are disposed of. We have, then, the second portion; in which the question is between his (the dragon’s) place there, and the angelic ministrations of God's power (“His angels which excel in strength”): and the dragon loses his place in heaven (he who had deceived the whole world), and he is cast out into the earth, not properly the world. This is all the direct statement made in this portion; for the question was, ruling the nations. But then secretly this made a most important change in another thing not so open in the world, the church—dwellers in heaven—the brethren. This was the way heaven was specially affected by this event. Salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ were now come,^[11] not till then in power: for, though hidden to the world and not understood, no more than Christ was, the heavenly-minded Church understands God’s leading and most important meaning in these things (what was next himself, if I may so speak). There was a witness to all Christ’s glory on the terms and grounds of God’s holiness in heaven, as walking in the light as He is in the light, having fellowship one with another, the blood of Jesus cleansing them from all sin all the time that Satan was in the heavens, drawing the third part of the stars—the ruler of the darkness of this world—a people who walked indeed on earth, but in spirit and title and nature, as given, dwelt in heaven; their Head being exalted above Satan even before God, and who had suffered and shed his blood for them, though now, as yet, he had not taken his power (“all things were not yet put under him”), wherefore Satan could torment. This people Satan had had been constantly accusing before God, for their inconsistencies or falsity, in order to distract, trouble, and hinder their assurance with God, or their testimony for God. By this turning of Satan out of the heavenly places of power, this conflict and accusation ceased; the heavens were cleared, that they might now declare His righteousness.

The actual catching up of the saints is not here mentioned, because the Church should always expect it; and because the agents and their public acts being here in question, the Church (one with Christ before the Father, the mystery hidden from ages and known only by the Spirit) is not, as we have seen all through, the subject;^[12] but the acts, as they affect the brethren, looked at in their condition here below, are noticed, because they are to reign with Christ whose power was now come.

The Church united to Christ and interested in him as her advocate and priest, and all those associated with the heavens, were now free. The question then was between the dragon’s wrath against those who were the special scene of Christ’s royalty, and the power of that Christ which was now come: the trial of the Church had ceased. The subject being the rule of the nations by the man-child, all the history of what passed in the Church as to this is unnoticed; only the dragon remains in heaven; the royalty not assumed: when it is, the change is noticed. Then, the power being come is not, however, immediately exercised: for the question then arises for the woman upon earth; a question of royalty and power. The object of this royalty and power in Christ being necessarily hated but rescued,^[13] and Satan’s hatred and animosity then directed against the remnant who were faithful to the light they had, keeping the commandments of God and having the testimony of Jesus, having the light there was—the spirit of prophecy.^[14]

The providential actual agencies follow; wherein these things are accomplished: as to the position and condition of the inhabiters of earth (of whom we have only heard as yet), for this period, twice repeated woe: in the second, the wide unformed mass of people too included, the inhabiters of the sea.

We have further to remark, that the moment the saints are introduced in their own position and character, suffering while Satan is in the heavens, the Lamb, its salvation, its strength, its joy, is at once introduced, and their victory celebrated on high. It is the natural association of the saints, as such fellowship with the crucified One: and therefore if only one or two saints be in their place, their associations are with the Lamb. It will be remembered, that the Lamb has not been mentioned all through the historical part: that was providence; and the Church was, as it were, hidden. This, in the course of external history, is its real relationship—as Peter describes it, doing well, suffering for it and taking it patiently,—and the Lamb, who led the way in this their joy; while, as to accusation, his blood gives them access to the throne where he is.

This account of the twelfth chapter of the dragon’s doings, taking up the mind of God in the throne as to it, the conflict by which he is cast out of the heavens of rule, and his conduct upon earth when cast down there, was quite the suitable introduction to the history of the manner and development of it in human instrumentality; that the Church might know, not merely its history, outside in the earth, but the meaning and truth of it in its elementary and radical causes and facts in Satan’s position, power, and actings, relative to God’s purposes. It relates to the question of ruling the nations, i.e. to Christ, as ruling, as he will, with the saints, the nations; and shews the relative position of the parties (while the man- child is caught up to God and his throne, or not actually in the scene), first in heaven ; and therefore the evil ceasing, when cast out, to affect the saints of the heavenlies, brought in thus^{[errata 1][15]} by the by, when their position has changed; and, then on earth as affecting the Jews, during the period in which God’s purpose, and therefore those interested in it, as a body, flee, in consequence of the dragon’s actings, into the wilderness, where they are nourished of God; i.e. not in the order of God’s regulated covenant blessing, apparent in manifested relationship, but supremely as such; all this time, therefore, of the dragon’s prevalence in heaven first, or on earth, is the time of the hiding and apparent disregard of God’s relationship with his people, although the object of these relationships becomes visible when the earth comes in question, and the woman, though persecuted or fleeing, is seen on earth; i.e. the Jewish body as such in connection with their place and promises, though unfulfilled: to this many of the Psalms refer; those in which God and not Lord is used as the term of relationship with the most High.

The saints may be united to this when removed hence and taken to Christ, but the great signal manifestation of the first statement of the chapter was, when Christ himself was taken out of the way; all, except that fact which characterizes all, is the statement of the principles and relative position of the parties; there may be, therefore, any lapse of time between the catching up of the man-child and the subsequent actings of the Lord; for there is no note of time connected with it: the facts are resumed, or, as to results, commenced by the war in heaven, This, is most signally fulfilled in its actual final accomplishment when Satan is cast out, The commencement, in their source,^[16] of the very last events, that change the position of the Church, and the last events on earth relative to the Jews, begin to have their course. The providential agents, as far as the moral prophetic earth is concerned, and the beasts, therefore, at this point, as we have said, are thereupon taken up.

1. Another sign begins chap. xv.
2. Christian Witness, vol. iii. p. 146.
3. Purpose has rather the force of the thing purposed, here, than intention. If I am understood, I have no anxiety as to metaphysical precision. The word purpose evidently includes both, but may apply specially to either, i.e. the intention and the thing intended.
4. This is true, even in Antichrist; for that is association with the Jews and possession of Jerusalem, to hold it, as the centre of earthly power against the Lord, as coming from heaven. The “scornful men” that dwell at Jerusalem “have made a covenant with death and are at agreement with hell.”
5. I suspect it will be found that while the suffering may be most blessed and glorious for righteousness’, or Christ’s sake, it is, nevertheless, always used by the Lord for the correction of some secret or manifest evil in the individual, or, at least, in the Church.
6. i.e. referring the passage to the protracted period.
7. I see a great deal to lead to the conviction that it is Christ, as the head of angelic power, but not certainly, and therefore say no more than I do here.
8. i.e. in the plural number. Superiorities, as principalities, powers, thrones, dominions, are spoken of, but not directly archangels.
9. Conflict with Satan, and trial, though used, perhaps, for chastening judgment, are very different from judgment in war, where Satan has power according to the fall of the first Adam, and a will to walk with him.
10. It is the angelic head of the Jewish people who was the power that overcame him above.
11. Should not this be, ‘Now is come the salvation and power and kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ’?
12. It is looked at corporately, only as in heaven, as we have often seen from the end of chapter iii. The accuser of our brethren, therefore, is spoken of; for the voice from heaven could not speak of suffering or accusation of saints there, but of those who had been liable to it on earth. On the supposition noticed above, these would be the class of sufferers still to be gathered as slain in the last testimony, or who would not worship the beast.
13. The time of Jacob’s trouble; but he is delivered out of it.
14. We have here the important fact, that after the celebration of the coming of salvation, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ, and the casting Satan down out of the heavenly places, three years and a half elapse before his trial and persecution of the Jewish people closes; and they are the object of his hatred, and Christ does not appear in their behalf.
15. This passage is a remarkable one as regards the crisis; for the joy is properly in heaven. The Church, properly speaking, is not in question. A voice, accordingly, is heard in heaven; but it clearly expresses the mind of God in the Church above; for it says “the accuser of our brethren,” and has the prospect of the kingdom as now come. It is as a gleaming out of the Church's joy in heaven, before the saints are manifested with Christ, on the cessation of the sufferings of those left on earth, and the clearing of the heavenlies. The period, according to the statement then made, would coincide with the death and going up of the two witnesses. The voice of heaven, the Church, is here rather identified with the priesthood and expectation of Christ, but that in a triumphant character, because accomplished by the casting down of Satan, and the kingdom now come, though not yet established for three years and a half upon earth.
    Any application of this passage to the witnesses, must, however, limit the interval to three years and a half between their exaltation and the first manifestion of the Lord’s power, in putting down Antichrist, or the beast’s last head. But I apprehend the proper application, besides Christ, to be to the Church of the firstborn—his body, and to be undated, save by its precedence of all ulterior events, i.e. of all events below, and even of the war in heaven; for Christ and His body cannot take their new relative place on earth, till Satan and his angels are cast down.
16. Although I say their source, which is true as to the administration of events and the moral state of things, yet there is passed by here (as not the subject of the chapter, and what can be hardly called an event, as changing the whole order of administration and divine government itself),—the shaking of the heavens in order to the appearing of the sign and government of the Son of Man there: but this does not properly come in here; and therefore I have only thus noticed it. Its date in the course of events may be seen in Matt. xxiv. and Mark xiii.; but it forms no part of the course of mere human events, but is a change in the heavenly administration of their order. But the war in heaven, and the consequent casting down of Satan to earth, do alter altogether the relative position of the Church, heaven, and earth. The direct administrative exercise of all this is deferred for three years and & half, to give time for the ripening of God’s purposes, the separation of the remnant of the Jews in their tribulation, and the full satanic rising of the earth against heaven: but heaven could announce its joy at once, and woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea; but the administration not being yet changed, things otherwise went on unrebuked, until the earth being worse far by this, and in Satanic energy enlisted against heaven, the Son of Man has to take the power into His own hands, and the administration itself is changed. Then begins the administration of the world to come, whereof we speak. This is a most important, and Scripture speaks of it as a very solemn, event. It is what I apprehend is called the end; “Then shall the end come.” Sinai was the manifest beginning; though there were other points connected with it in the world and earth, to wit, Noah and Nebuchadnezzar.

1. Original: this was amended to thus: detail