The Mail on Sunday journalist Peter Hitchens, writing in an April 2008 newspaper article (and later blog thread entitled: Was World War Two just as pointless and self-defeating as Iraq . . .) wrote:
'The First and Second World Wars, as [Patrick] Buchanan says [in his book, Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War], are really one [great] conflict.'
Centuries before, Vitringa remarked, concerning that great conflict that is styled in the Apocalypse as “Armageddon”; that it would consist of:
'two most signal slaughters, between which some space of time would intervene'.
– As cited in the Rev Joseph Towers' Illustrations of Prophecy, 1796. – The work from which I quoted from extensively in my previous post The best laid schemes of FROGS and men; and again do so below – this time from the next, and final chapter to that prophetic Volume:
CHAPTER XVIL
ON THE SYMBOLIC HARVEST AND VINTAGE.
'The sixth rule, which Dr. Lancaster lays down in his Abridgment of Daubuz's Preliminary Discourse, as an aid in the interpretation of prophecy, is thus expressed: “when the things to be prophesied of in the Revelation are to be considered in several views, there is a change of symbols.” The reason is, says Dr. Lancaster, that as the symbols of prophecy must bear a certain analogy to each other, and must preserve throughout a certain decorum, it is impossible, that the same strain of symbols should represent all that variety of circumstances, which it is sometimes expedient to introduce. “And therefore, when the matters require that they should be considered under another aspect, the strain of the symbols must change, and the scene of the visions alters; so that many symbols may be used to denote the same thing in different respects. Now there are placed such inward marks, which belong to every part of a vision; that we may thereby discover how the matters of that vision are related to the rest. Thus we find what is antecedent and consequent, or what is only collateral; and so it appears what visions and their parts synchronize, and what do not. By this method what as before treated of succinctly is enlarged upon, and more fully demonstrated. So that the Revelation is not wrote in the way of annalists, who, being content to reduce all matters to a chronological series, only relate briefly what happens every year, without enlarging upon the intrigues or causes of the events, and omitting for the most part the consequences; but in the way of the mort judicious historians, who endeavour to give a full account of every matter as they take it in hand, in order to make a complete system of the whole; interposing digressions, and then returning to the principal matters, by giving such hints and transitions, as suffice to let us understand to what they belong, and how, as to point of time, they come in or end with the rest. — And this is the method, not only of the most exact histories and discourses, but in a special manner that of all the inspired writers; in whom the conjunctive particles do rather import, that one passage comes to be related after another, than that it was realty transacted after it.”
'Thus the wars, in which the tyrants of the European world are to be subdued, with their widely scattered partisans, being of such mighty influence in deciding the condition of the human race, are foretold, in several parts of the apocalypse, and under different emblems. Such appears to be the import of THE HARVEST and THE VINTAGE, described in the xivth chapter.
'It is said in v.15 and 16, the harvest of the earth, or the antichristian part of mankind, is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth: and the earth was reaped. An “harvest in several places of scripture denotes,” says Dr. Lancaster, some “destroying judgment, by which people fall as corn by the scythe.” It “is sometimes metaphorically used,” observes Mr. Lowth, “to signify an entire destruction, because the harvest makes a clear riddance, and leaves the fields empty and bare.” And Vitringa, speaking of the word just cited from St. John, says, “the clearest arguments demonstrate, that the harvest is to be explained of some judgment of God of a general kind, by which he would take a severe vengeance on the enemies of the church and the adversaries of his people.”
'In v.17 an angel is represented as having a sharp sickle: and the command given unto him (v.18) is, thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel (v.19) thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. Of the symbols of the prophets some were borrowed from the customs of Judæa. Thus say bp. [bishop] Hurd, “to tread a wine-press, from their custom of pressing grapes, signifies destruction attended with great slaughter.” “The wine-press is called great,” says Daubuz, “because this is not a partial but general punishment.” That this prediction of the vintage alludes to the war of Armageddon, is observed, among other commentators, by Mede, and More, by Durham, Cressener, and Peganius. Vitringa, indeed, declares it to be the opinion of all the best interpreters, that it is a prophecy of the great slaughter which is then to take place.
'Nothing, says this great commentator, is more certain than that this apocalyptic description of the harvest and the vintage is borrowed from the prophet Joel; and he afterwards says, “when I have, with more than usual diligence, compared this prophecy with that of Joel, in which both emblems refer to the same judgment, I have seen no reason for interpreting the emblems of St. John as belonging to separate judgments.” As the emblem of a harvest did not ascertain, whether the enemies of God should be cut off by famine, or pestilence, or war; he remarks, that another and kindred similitude, that of a vintage, was superadded, that it might more conspicuously be evident, that war would be the means employed. “This appears to be the simplest and most easy sense of the prophecy.” I am again quoting the words of Vitringa; “although, if a distinction be made between these emblems, we must say, that God will provide means by his providence, that the enemies of the church should receive two most signal slaughters, between which some space of time would intervene, which agreeably to analogy may be represented by the interval, which separates a harvest from a vintage.” The symbolic grapes are described as fully ripe “That is,” says Vitringa, “the period of the divine forbearance had expired, and villanies, no longer to be tolerated, had arisen to their utmost height. The measure of crimes was filled up. — Punishment therefore could no longer be deferred, but the destroyers of the earth were at length to be destroyed, and were in their turn to meet with their reward.” Vitringa here, in imitation of the prophet, employs the past tense, though speaking of the future. This, he observes, is the period, when our Lord's prophetic parable of the burning of the tares shall be accomplished*. . . .'
[*From footnote: 'Mat. xiii. 39-43. Brenius explains this passage in the same way, and more at large, in his treatise De Regno Ecclesiæ Glorioso.']
(pp. 296-300).
'Reference has been made to a passage of striking import in the iiid. ch. of Joel; which chapter, says. Mr. Lowth, “relates to the latter times of the world.” “Vast multitudes of the Antichristians,” says Dr. Wells, “shall be destroyed” at the period of its accomplishment. It is thought to be prophetic of the very same events which St. John has foretold shall take place in the course of the symbolic vintage and in the war of Armageddon. It begins with foretelling the mighty military preparations which shall be made, and the numerous forces which shall be assembled together by the friends of tyranny and antichristianism. Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near: let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy Mighty Ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be weakened, and come up to the valley of Jehosaphat; for there will I sit to judge[1] all the heathen round about[2]. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come get ye down, for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes[3] in the valley of decision[4]: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
[Footnotes: 1. 'To Judge all the heathen, i.e. says bishop Newcome, “to punish by a signal overthrow.” 2. Here the prophet clearly makes a transition, and addresses those, who are to defeat the antichristian party and all the Mighty Ones who are enlisted under its banners. 3. The repetition of this noun signifies, says Dr. Pococke, according to a well attested rule of the Hebrew grammarians, that those spoken of will be extraordinarily numerous. 4. Bp. Newcome renders it, the valley of excision.']
'This prophecy of Joel does, says Vitringa, refer to that time, when great commotions shall arise through all the countries of Europe, and the antichristian empire shall be destroyed; and he observes, that the place styled Armageddon by St. John is the same with the Valley of Jehoshaphat. “The place of this remarkable action,” says Mr. Lowth, “is here called the Valley of Jehoshaphat; as if the prophet had said, the Place where the Lord will execute judgment, for so the word jehoshaphat signifies in the original.”' (pp. 301-302).
'In reading the predictions which I have recently cited, of future slaughter, humanity cannot but be wounded. But it is proper that the truth should be told. It is time, that those who believe in prophecy should learn, on what class of persons the full weight of the divine vengeance is finally to fall.
'That it is no light matter to pay a servile obedience to the unholy commands of the civil magistrates and the hierarchies, and to assist them in their unrighteous designs, the following alarming declaration will serve to evince. In ch. xiv. of the apocalypse, an angel is represented as saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the Beast and his Image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. He shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God; i. e. says Mr. Cradock, he “shall partake of severe judgments, the effect of God's wrath.” This passage, in the opinion of Daubuz refers to the accomplishment of the symbolic harvest and vintage, and to the infliction of those judgments which are denominated the Seven Vials [and culminate in the great hail of Rev. xvi 21]. “The threatening,” says this learned commentator, “being levelled against such as any way yield to the religion of the Beast, and submit to the taking only of the public mark of profession in the forehead, as well as giving actual assistance, which is the case of them that take it upon their hands, shews us, that God's plagues affect not only those that presumptuously act in the corruptions, but all those fearful persons, who did not actually resist, or avoid giving way to them.”' (pp. 303-304).
'In the next verse the prophet adds, that the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the Beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. “The expression for ever and ever is,” says Daubuz, “to be understood during the continuation of the subject; that is, whilst the Beast and False Prophet have adherents, they shall have a perpetual torment.” These awful denunciations, in the opinion of Vitringa, have a double reference; and respect alike the punishments of a future state and the judgments to be inflicted in the present world.' (p. 304).
The two posts that follow below:
“Hitler's Pope” and A(i)r-mageddon: the “great hail” of Revelation 16:21
are a solemn continuation, from the annuals of history,
of the weighty pronouncements above cited . . .
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