Preaches on Theories About Revelation

Phoenix, Arizona, 1908

Subject of Rev. A.R. Maclean's Sermon

At the First M. E. church yesterday Rev. Alexander R. Maclean, in deference to the wish of many of his congregation, repeated one of the evening discourses lately given by him upon the Book of Revelation.

He told his hearers at the outset that it was his purpose, in this sermon, to go rough-shod over some of their old theories touching the second coming of Christ, and he asked them to give him a patient hearing as he had given the theme a careful study for fifteen years.

The Book of Revelation is one of the most wonderful, most mysterious and most difficult books of the Bible — so much so that we have almost left it as a sealed volume. Unfortunately it Was placed at the end of the Bible, when, following its chronological order, it should have been given a much earlier place. It was the first book written by John. The Gospel of St. John was written twenty-five years afterwards.

Men who have devoted years to the study of the Hebrew and the Greek languages have discovered, and practically agreed, that the Greek, in which the Book of Revelation was written was the work of a man unfamiliar with Greek idioms, and that the discourse is as mixed and incoherent as would be that of a German on first coming to this country, and trying to build up good English sentences. When you compare the tangled and uncertain phraseology of this book with the Gospel and Epistles of St. John, you quickly see the wide difference in their diction. When Revelation was written John had just come from Ephesus. After a series of years he mastered the Greek language, and his work shows it. It is logical, precise and elegant. Indeed he became so proficient in this ancient tongue that some of his commentators aver that his Gospel, and the three Epistles, could have been written by no other hand.

The Book of Revelation was written between the two great historic fires, the burning of Rome and the burning of Jerusalem, and was written for contemporary purposes, dealing with what were then live questions; while the Gospel, and the three Epistles of St. John, were written in his old age. At the first writing, it was a question of change and alarm, of disaster and bloodshed. When the others were written, none of these things were in marked evidence; in the churches, or in the kingdoms of the world.

There are three conspicuous theories as to the second coming of Christ. The Futurists believe in the future fulfillment of the prophecy made in the Book of Revelation. The next class believe that that book simply anticipates the life of the world, historically, for a given period. The Praeterist school claim that the prophecy has been fulfilled already, and that Christ has come as foretold.

By one sect, which has a wide following, the year 1000 A. D. was believed to be the year of His coming, and numbers went to Judea to meet Him. But He did not come.

The Millerites proclaimed that His advent would be in 1843. Time after time the date has been set only to lead to disappointment. The Thessalonians believed that Christ had come. Paul argued that He had not come. The great apostasy, the falling away in the churches, that Christ predicted, which was to be manifest before His second coming, had not come. The Man of Sin has not yet been revealed, the Anti-Christ has not come.

The Thessalonians did not look for a visible Christ. Nobody has seen Jesus in His second coming. He is coming with clouds as He went away; He will be obscured by them, seen only by spiritual eyes.

All the authors of the New Testament looked for His speedy coming. "Behold I come quickly," He said. "This generation shall not pass away till these things be fulfilled," and many such passages.

Mr. Maclean is thoroughly optimistic in his predilections. He believes the church of Jesus was never as good as it now is. It is a queen compared with the apostolic churches. It has more Bibles, and better men and women, than ever before. The Golden Age of human experience is coming — it has not gone. Tomorrow will be better than today. Twelve centuries ago our Anglo Saxon forefathers drank blood from human skulls — roasted their victims before slow fires because of their alleged religious heresies.

It is a wonderful thing to live today. The thought that the world is growing worse is a nightmare; let us get rid of it. It has been getting better, is getting better, and will be getting better. Open your eyes! Jesus Christ is reigning — has His hand on the nations. We look hopefully forward to the establishment of His kingdom in every continent, in every land and in every island of the sea. In a discourse to be given later, Mr. Maclean promises to give proofs further substantiating his views, and his interpretation of the Book of Revelation.

—The Arizona Republican, Phoenix, AZ, April 8, 1907, p. 8.